I took a 10 ft volunteer, about 1.5 inch dia, added root hormone and planted in the yard. 10 years later I have a real nice shade tree. They are real easy to start from cuttings.

Good luck

Craig

I have, not hard at all. I used root tone on the cutting then put them in pots with a good potting mix. Placed them in shade and watered every day till I saw new growth. Out of six cuttings 5 made it.

You don't even have to put rooting hormone on it. You can take an entire limb and stick it in the ground and it will grow. During hurricane Charley, a friend had a big limb fall of of hers, and it laid on the ground so long, it rooted itself into the ground. Some ficus will do that too, because they make adventitious roots all long their stems.

Is there a reason you don't see them more often in landscaping? They are such an interesting looking tree.

I think it's likely because they get so big and aren't good in hurricanes. They aren't sold in nurseries because they grow so fast, they bust out of their pots before they are sold.

But they are native to florida and as for not being so good in hurricanes those 2 out in placida at the fishery have been there a couple of generations. They have such a nice silohuette.

I was thinking of something else. Gumbo Limbo does well in hurricanes. My guess is that they are really large and most yards these days are too small to accomodate one. Also, they are not cold hardy north of zone 10, so you'd only see them down there.

Yeah, I was going to say every nursery sells them down here. They are on every street too. I have heard ones from cuttings don’t develop a deep tap root, so they don’t do as well in hurricanes. On the other hand, they use them to make living fences in the Caribbean, breaking off branches and popping them in the ground every few feet. If they fall over, pop them back up and they’ll reroot. Wood seems to never die. I have chunks of it in my garage from Irma, and they just flowered!

I was reading that they do better in hurricanes because during the storm they loose their leaves and small branches so the tree has an open canopy so is less likely to be pushed down.