As I was walking from my car to my office, taking a new path in, I happened to glance down and what do you think I saw? Growing amongst the star jasmine, ivy and Melaleuca trees was a large patch of fig leaves! I did a double take. Am I seeing things?

It looks like the fig has been there for a some time but the gardeners keep weed-whacking it down. You can see the damage to what little hardwood exists. There are many new shoots about 6-12" high. Mostly green wood but there are a few hardwood pieces. I'm going to try to get some rooted pieces but it's growing so close to these large Melaleuca tree roots that it may not be possible. Probably what saved it from the gardeners!

This fig leaf is unique to me. I've searched all the figs on Jon's site for a similar leaf and found nothing even close (but we know about fig leaves). This fig has 3 fingers and 2 thumbs. All the leaves, small or large are identical, no other variation in shape of leaf are seen in this clump.

I took a 6" hardwood cutting home with me. Since it is not dormant I'm not sure the best way to get this baby to root. I have it in water and have stripped off the 2 largest of the 4 leaves. I think I will get a couple more cuttings today and experiment with different rooting techniques to see if one works better than the other: baggie, direct soil/perlite, water, etc.

Here are a few photos I took of the clump:

http://www.susanvanderveen.com/FIGS/BAE_Figs/BAE_Fig.htm

That's all I know about this fig so far. I don't know if it's a common fig, color of the fruit, or any other details. It will be fun to watch this fig grow.

I'm going to 'rope' it off somehow so the gardners leave it alone. Put some yellow police tape up or something. ;-)

Sue