I have quite a few clippings I took from a ficus benjamina hedge at my mothers second home in south Florida. I kept them in a bottle of water (submerged only an inch or so) and returned them to Vermont. They rooted in about a month and I planted them in clear starter pots. When I saw the fine feeder roots had taken over the soil, I repoted and also trimmed small branches and leaves from the bottom. I have since braided the three stems and tied them off. How long do the braids usually take to fuse together where the ties can be removed? I've had a lot of luck water rooting ficus clippings. And have 9 different trees from clippings alone that are doing very well. One was even a tiny 3" long clipping with one leaf from my 5.5' tall tree. It's now