Am I understanding correctly that you did a full repot, which includes removing all existing grow media, root pruning, and a change of medium? If yes, and especially considering a highly stressed plant will have little in the way of natural defense against insect herbivory and pathogens, your priorities should be to ensure the grow medium is damp/moist - about as damp as a well-wrung out sponge, not wet or soggy, the plant is warm (21-26c), and it gets plenty of light. Resist the urge to water until a wooden "tell" inserted deep into the pot bottom comes out barely moist. More on using a "tell": Using a 'tell' Over-watering saps vitality and is one of the most common plant assassins, so learning to avoid it is worth the small effort. Plants make and store their own energy source – photosynthate - (sugar/glucose). Functioning roots need energy to drive their metabolic processes, and in order to get it, they use oxygen to burn (oxidize) their food. From this, we can see that terrestrial plants need plenty of air (oxygen) in the soil to drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and not enough air to support the kind of root health most growers would like to see; and, a healthy root system is a prerequisite to a healthy plant. Watering in small sips leads to avoid over-watering leads to a residual build-up of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil from tapwater and fertilizer solutions, which limits a plant's ability to absorb water – so watering in sips simply moves us to the other horn of a dilemma. It creates another problem that requires resolution. Better, would be to simply adopt a soil that drains well enough to allow watering to beyond the saturation point, so we're flushing the soil of accumulating dissolved solids whenever we water; this, w/o the plant being forced to pay a tax in the form of reduced vitality, due to prolong periods of soil saturation. Sometimes, though, that's not a course we can immediately steer, which makes controlling how often we water a very important factor. In many cases, we can judge whether or not a planting needs watering by hefting the pot. This is especially true if the pot is made from light material, like plastic, but doesn't work (as) well when the pot is made from heavier material, like clay, or when the size/weight of the pot precludes grabbing it with one hand to judge its weight and gauge the need for water. Fingers stuck an inch or two into the soil work ok for shallow pots, but not for deep pots. Deep pots might have 3 or more inches of soil that feels totally dry, while the lower several inches of the soil is 100% saturated. Obviously, the lack of oxygen in the root zone situation can wreak havoc with root health and cause the loss of a very notable measure of your plant's potential. Inexpensive watering meters don't even measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. Clean the tip and insert it into a cup of distilled water and witness the fact it reads 'DRY'. One of the most reliable methods of checking a planting's need for water is using a 'tell'. You can use a bamboo skewer in a pinch, but a wooden dowel rod of about 5/16” (75-85mm) would work better. They usually come 48” (120cm) long and can usually be cut in half and serve as a pair. Sharpen all 4 ends in a pencil sharpener and slightly blunt the tip so it's about the diameter of the head on a straight pin. Push the wooden tell deep into the soil. Don't worry, it won't harm the root system. If the plant is quite root-bound, you might need to try several places until you find one where you can push it all the way to the pot's bottom. Leave it a few seconds, then withdraw it and inspect the tip for moisture. For most plantings, withhold water until the tell comes out dry or nearly so. If you see signs of wilting, adjust the interval between waterings so drought stress isn't a recurring issue. I'll link you to two short pieces I wrote that provide 1) An Overview of Good Growing Practices, and 2) an Specific Overview of Long Term Care of Ficus in Containers. Hopefully it's not too little, too late. If you have other questions you think I might be able to answer, please don't hesitate. I have at least 40 containerized Ficus covering at least a dozen species or cultivars. Al

There are a lot of half-truths in this thread, and some plain misinformation sprinkled in. First, the idea that certain fertilizer types promote root growth is a fallacy. If anything, fertilizing a new transplant, or one that has been in its permanent home for just a year or two or three, will actually retard root system expansion. One way to think of this is that the roots are "looking" for nutrients, so a heavy-handed approach where too much of these nutrients are placed in the root zone actually causes less growth, not more. Then, there's the staking of young plants: Tree saplings develop something called reaction wood in response to being buffeted by the wind. Stake it tightly to some rod or stick and you've eliminated the opportunity for this to happen. Doesn't mean no stakes ever, but especially any items tied tightly so the trunk can't move around are to be avoided...and anything used must come off after the first year. Then there's the idea that somehow by pruning, we can mold the plant into a shape it's not otherwise genetically programmed to adopt. While there's a dab of truth in this one, it is the wrong road to take. Somebody up above at least stated the obvious-that young plants need all the foliage they can have to produce their food via photosynthesis. And that same process causes chemicals called auxins, developed in growing shoot tips, to send signals to the roots to grow. Constantly messing with this process just confuses things. Very basically stated, if you want a tree that produces mostly an upright growth habit, select a species or cultivar of a species which is genetically programmed to grow in that fashion. Trying to beat a horse into an elephant is bound to cause frustration, and the same applies here in the plant world. Now this is not at all to say one should never prune their trees. I myself have pruned perhaps a half-million plants in my time! But there are proper techniques here, just as one wouldn't try to carve a turkey without a clue what they are doing. Very generally, a moderate program of "raising up", which simply means removing lower branches can be done, but gradually please. If one is impatient and tries to do this all at once, the very likely response by that plant is to sucker like mad. Basically, when plant parts are removed, the plant responds by trying to reestablish those plant parts. So go ahead and take all kinds of branches off your tree....and the tree will simply start a bunch of new branches. We call those new branches suckers, and many of them will grow right straight up through the tree canopy, rubbing against other more well-placed branches, or throwing the crown balance off, or competing with the main leader. These are all undesirable outcomes. Pruning trees is not simpleton stuff. Why anyone would undertake it without knowing what they're doing is beyond me, except for the monkey see-monkey do factor. Let's not do our gardening by that method! +oM

I'm not finding the thread now where I wondered whether I should prune a particular branch on my 18-month-old Alphonso mango or not, just as a flush of growth was winding down during the summer--but I did prune it. I had pruned the rest of the tree awhile earlier and it was growing like crazy, a little too much so in this one spot--it was just one solitary branch going almost to the ground. And then it just sat there looking stumped. In October (!) the tree finally responded to that pruning with a flush of tender new growth, there and in one other random spot; slower than summer, but still, five new branches, and now there's budding. So cool. (Is it normal for it to be budding in November?) But why I most wanted to come back was to thank Stanofh for his help. For the advice that my Alphonso mango needed to be kept warmer than I'd been doing in order for it to bloom. This is a warmer fall than last year's, which helps, but I've been putting my two frost cover layers over the tree right at sundown rather than waiting for the temps to get down into the fifties--what I'd read previously was that it just had to stay above 40 for the inflorescence and that cold prompts it to start budding. That appears to have been incomplete information at best. And I reset the temp control attached to the incandescent Christmas lights to click on sooner. I went looking again for a book, any book, on how to grow them and found one by Lee Reich that had a short entry on mangoes. He said they have to stay above 55 consistently to flower. Which is pretty much what Stanofh had said. So I guess there's cold and there's its idea of what cold is supposed to mean. Stanofh, when I taste my first homegrown mango I will be thanking you for it.

With all my roses pruned, there is no activity nowadays. However, when I complained to my rose nursery that the roses this year were not healthy, he sent me another pack, most roses of his own choice, at 80% discount. I am dealing with this rose nursery since long and many a times he sents a few roses free of cost Penelope (Hybrid Musk, Pemberton 1924) Brandy, (HT, Herbert Swim 1981) Memorial Day (HT, Tom Carruth 2001) Elizabeth of Glamis (Floribunda, McGredy 1958) Black Caviar (Astrid Grafin Von Hardenberg, Shrub, Tantau 2001) Daftrausch (Senteur Royale, HT, Tantau 1986) Andre le Notre (Betty White, Meilland 2000) Niclole Carol Miller (Grandiflora, Meilland, 2005) Pink Peac, (HT, Meilland 1958) JFK, (HT, Eugene Boerner, 1965) Souvenir de Baden-Baden (Pink Enchantment, HT, Kordes 2000) Princess Alexandra of Kent An un-tagged rose I already have two bushes of Princess Alexandra but he sends me a third at his own. No problem. I am not paying . I am fascinated to have Penelope, Memorial Day, Black Caviar and Andre le Notre. Have heard good things about these roses. I spent whole friday afternoon planting these roses... On Saturday morning me and my sons went up Margalla Hills for hiking. Margalla Hills National Park starts less than a km from my house. Here is one of the biggest trees that I saw in many years.... growing on the foot hills of Margalla. Yes, this is one tree. It is certainly hundreds of years old and Banyan tree do spread like this over the centuries; each root that touches the ground becomes a tree. This was last week. This tree is not that old but it is located high up on the Margalla mountain. We reached this spot after 2 hours of hiking. And here are few photos of one of my favourite palms, growing in the wild in Margalla National Park. Phoenix rupicola is indeed makes a majestic bush when fully grown. Phoenix rupicola grows up in the Margalla mountains at medium ranges. Here is one majestic specimen, isn't it? Another specimen This one has been through a jungle fire. The trunk is old but the leaves on top are few. Look how majestic this one looks. I am quite certain that if I grow this plant in my house (which is just 2 hours walk and in aerial distance, around 5 km from this place where this plant is going naturally), it will perhaps never grow this well. This is what I try to discover during my hikes. In nature, what makes the plants grow so well. What is God's Recipe for this lush growth? I think Straw would be interested to know this.... So many Phoenix rupicola growing naturally near the top of the mountain. I am so lucky to have this place just two hours hike from my house (in distance, it would be around 5 km aerial distance). Since there are no rose pics to show.... I thought we can talk about Banyan tree and Rupicola Palms I guess All photos shown above have been taken by me during my hikes in Margalla mountains. best regards