HoneyBerry
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Need plant ID

image.jpg
Does anyone know what plant this is?
Thank you in advance.

HoneyBerry
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image.jpg

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Gnome
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Looks like a Ficus to me, or rather a clump. Since it looks pretty good you can snip a leaf off and look for a milky sap, this confirms Ficus.

HoneyBerry
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Thanks, we were thinking it might be a Ficus. It was a free plant, almost dead. It is thriving now, after we transplanted it. The roots are already growing through the hole in the bottom of the pot into the saucer. So we're thinking about transplanting it again into a big pot that sits on the floor. It seems to like the environment.

imafan26
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It looks happy. I behaves like a ficus. You can trim the root when you transplant. Just not too much. It will keep it in the same pot longer.

HoneyBerry
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This plant is definately happy. It was much smaller when I first transplanted it to a bigger pot. A coworker gave it to me to save. It was almost dead. When I pulled it from the tiny pot, I found a large chunk of concrete in there. There was hardly any dirt, mostly concrete. The roots were wrapped around the concrete. It looked as if the roots had been trying hard to find some dirt but then gave up when they ran into the bottom of the clay pot. The inventor of this planting technique often boasted that she was a master gardener. The sick plant really took off when I transplanted it to a larger pot with new potting soil and no concrete. The original pot was about half the size of the pot in the photo and the chunk of concrete was barely fit through the pot opening. And the coworker who had the plant at her desk neglected it for years before she finally handed it over to me, because I have a "plant doctor" reputation. The plant was quite a fighter considering the obstacles. I love this plant but don't have room for it at home. So after transplanting it, I donated it to one of the office administrators. The plant has grown so much and so fast. We are ready to put it into an even bigger pot and it should grow even more. It has been a fun little project. I did something similar with another coworker's Lucky Bamboo that was almost dead from chlorinated water. I see so many ugly looking neglected office plants.

Does anyone know if standing water in the plant saucer is a good thing or a bad thing?

imafan26
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Standing water is never a good thing. It is bad for most roots to sit in water and it encourages mosquitos, and fungus gnats.

Ficus will do that and the roots will take over a pot, and then it will try to escape through the drain hole and go to ground.
It is also why it is one of the easier bonsai plants for me to grow since the branches stay flexible a long time and the roots can be pruned without a lot of set back, even fairly large roots can be pruned, the plant may go through some shock and lose some leaves but I have rarely killed one that way. I had a small leaf ficus that was in an 8 inch pot and I could tell when it escaped because it would be too happy and I would try to lift the pot and found it had gone through the second pot and three feet into the ground and it did that more than once..

HoneyBerry
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That's what I told the plant keeper person, that standing water in the saucer is not good. But then I noticed the roots in the saucer water. This plant seems to like the water, so I was confused. I want to give her good advice, but it's hard to be convincing when the plant seems to be enjoying so much the standing water in the saucer. This plant is so happy that it would be singing all the time if it were a bird.



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