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Thursday, December 19, 2013

Creeping Fig - Updates




I had first purchased this plant somewhere in July 2009.
When I first saw it
I thought it was an ivy species only to realise later that it is the invasive creeping kind.
Sad to say, as much I anticipate the heavy uncontrollable invasion.
Nothing of that sort had happened.
This one was as mild & docile as possible and a slight change on the plant just put the plant on a shock and its totally die back and restart back at the root base.

This is the Varigated type of Creeping Fig (Ficus Repens)

The first 3 pictures here are the initial stages of the plant.
When the plant started creeping on the wall.
The green "wild side" started to take dominance and the white ones slowly fading off.






























I made a big mistake by placing it on the hanging basket against the wall. I should have started it from ground to the top.
Eventually I cut off the ones crawling on the wall but that portion totally died.
Sadly the plant didn't really recover to the former glory.
Its still alive but barely making back to its glory days.

I manage to place it near the orchid side and it was somehow slowly picking up.
Until the rat menace took over where the rat start chewing on the base of the trailing vine cutting of the rest of the creeper which suddenly appeared be dead clinging to the wall.
It was a great disappointment as I was not able to do anything to save them.






























Here you can see.
The plant had totally ditched the white variegation form from it's leaves.
It had pushed all the white colouration on one spot of the plant and had totally purge it as that particular part totally dried off.
Some plants are just wild and it will show its wild side when the opportunity strikes.





 These are my next experiment of getting to grow again from a different cuttings found along the roadside. I had tried many trials to get them growing strong but somehow they seemed to be very sensitive, slow and proves difficult when their environment is not according to their liking.

These are few things which I found that doesn't work:

1) They don't root in water (I tried many cuttings and they all died)
Contrary to what is adviced in some tips found in the net.

2) They don't root in Sphagnum Moss.

3) They don't do well in shade. They appear to be dormant but suddenly drops its leave dried and brown when left in shade in few weeks.

4) So far the successful rate of it are these in these containers (picture below)
I had added some fertiliser and they are growing slowly - not ready for any creeping session yet.

5) I found that they start well in growth with sand compared to other mediums.
But these are more like out 10 cuttings only 2-3 survives.

I have yet to discover more information concerning this.
Whatever that is said in the internet based information seems to sound easy (some that claim) but to me, it proves challenging and difficult.

I hope someone would able to give a clear cut approach in propagating this one
as I truly love this plant to adorn my garden walls.
Appreciate if anyone can share their experience on this.





2 comments:

marie-gael said...

did you find that these damaged the wall at all?

James David said...

So far it didn't survive that long for me to see any damage.
They seemed to grow ever so slow and I was hoping at least to get them back again on the wall..
Hopefully in my lifetime (looking at the glazier speed these things are growing)

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Tropical Garden, Batu Caves, Malaysia
My Malaysian Tropical Garden mainly focused on unique and colorful plants ranging from rare to common plants all around the tropical belt across the world. Ideal for inspiration for challenging areas in the garden space - indoor gardening, balcony gardening and small green spaces especially for ariods, bromeliads, begonias, edibles, cascading & vertical garden plants, succulents & cacti, orchids, together with both shade and sun loving plants.

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