I believe it's a Ficus, not so sure of the species, maybe Ficus mircrocarpa. Go very easy on the watering until it acclimates to its new home. They can take anything from full, unobstructed sun to filtered sun. Leaves are somewhat rounder than my own, but I see that there are cultivars out there with rounder leaves, some have more prominent drip tips.

If it had mealies I’d isolate it from other plants until you’re sure they’re gone.

tj

where are you big city name .. and how cold did it get in the dumpster ...

can we see the pot ....

whats the other plant.. and why is it suffering?? .. maybe a new post on that plant if you want to work on that one also ...

and i would also get it away from the second plant.. just in case.. its usually not as simple as just picking things off a plant ...

i love the flapper-esque art work ... is is antique/old.. or did you make it?? .. but i digress ..

ken

not sure what the other plant is but I attached a photo.

Philadelphia. Also not sure how long the plant was in the dumpster or how cold it got but likely was in the 30s at night.

Thank you!

The piece on the wall is a woodcut print that I made.

The sculptural head is found/vintage

I will move

from other plants

Also to clarify about the mealy bugs.

I followed a blog post about removing them with rubbing alcohol and cotton swab. then spraying with mild soap/water mixture.

if you mean it was exposed to 30 degree F ... you may lose all the leaves ...

spent an hour reading about flappers ... thx for the topic .. now.. what to do with all the knowledge i have.... about them .. lol

ken

The vine appears to be Thunbergia alata. It is a tender perennial usually grown as an annual outside the tropics. To keep it going over winter it would need very good light and warmth.

Leaves of plants in the mulberry family (includes Ficus) aren't arranged in opposite pairs like the plant in the OP. Ficus leaves are singlets arranged alternately in roughly a helical pattern. 1 north, 1 east. 1 south, 1 west, repeat.

I would:

* Monitor moisture levels deep in the pot by using a "tell" ..... more on that below.

* The first time the plant needs watering, I would flush the soil thoroughly ..... in case the previous owner's care practices encouraged a build up of salt residues in the grow medium from tapwater and fertilizer solutions. See below for more info.

* Immediately after flushing the soil, I would fertilize with a high quality fertilizer that contains all essential nutrients in a favorable ratio. Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 does an admirable job of providing complete nutrition in a single product, and I highly recommend it. Use the production strength solution as water remaining in the medium will further dilute the solution.

* After that, care would center on monitoring water needs with a tell, watering to beyond the point of soil saturation - so the medium is completely saturated at least 20% of the total volume of water applied exits the drain hole, and keeping the plant warm and in bright light. Water only when the "tell" first comes out barely moist.

* If the plant is rootbound, I would plan a repot for sometime in mid-June. Think Father's Day or the summer solstice (21 June), which (all else equal) ensures the fastest recovery and minimal loss of growth potential.

* In case the medium is overly water-retentive, tipping the pot to a 45* angle can help drain a considerable amount of excess water (compared to not tipping the pot). Compare B to A below to get an idea of how much difference it can make.

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.

Flushing Soils

When you water, you should be able to flush planting's soil to eliminate the potentiality of salts from fertilizers and tapwater accumulating in the soil, thereby limiting the plant's ability to take up water and the nutrients dissolved in the water. If you think you shouldn't flush the soil during your regular water applications for fear the soil will remain saturated for a lengthy period, limiting root function or worse, you should consider a different soil or take steps to reduce the amount of excess water your soil can hold. By whatever means necessary, getting to the point you can water correctly is going to make a very big difference in the opportunity to realize as much of it's genetic potential as possible. Once you can water correctly, you no longer have to do battle with a water-retentive medium over control of your plant's vitality. There are several methods of limiting how much water your planting can hold, all but 1 or 2 are completely passive, requiring no effort on your part other than set-up, which is monkey easy. I can help if you have interest in that, I'm continually improving my proficiency at monkey easy tasks.

To flush the soil of a planting: Water with room temperature water until the soil is completely saturated. Allow the planting to rest for 15 minutes to an hour to allow as much of the salt accumulation as possible to go into solution, then pour a volume of room temp water equal to at least 10X the volume of the pot the plant is in slowly through the soil. This will remove most of any accumulation of offending salts and resolve any skewing of nutrient ratios.

It's a good idea, no matter what time of year, to fertilize most plants immediately after flushing the soil. Try to be sure you're using a fertilizer that has a ratio as close as possible to the ratio at which the plant uses nutrients. The NPK % listed on fertilizer packaging is not its ratio. 7-7-7 and 14-14-14 are 1:1:1 ratios. 9-3-6, 12-4-8, and 24-8-16, are all 3:1:3 ratios. Container growers should try very hard to avoid use of fertilizers advertised as 'bloom-boosters', or any number with a middle number (Phosphorous) higher than either the first or third numbers (Nitrogen or Potassium). These fertilizers can badly skew nutrient ratios with even the first application). On average, plants use about 6x as much N as P, so there is NO potential for a positive outcome when supplying many times as much P as the plant requires. I, and a large number of other members, use Dyna-Gro's Foliage Pro 9-3-6. It's designed to closely mimic the uptake ratio of the average plant, and has many other attributes not commonly found in other fertilizers. It also has ALL of the nutrients essential to normal growth. Summarized, it makes fertilizing as easy as it can be, and from 1 container.

Al

It's Clusia rosea.

I find them to be challenging houseplants outside of a tropical climate.

it is definitely a Clusea, not a Ficus. Clusea leaves are thicker, fleshier, rounder.

Clusea is everywhere in So FL in landscaping from small hedges to big trees.

Wonder why Clusia is not not more widely available in the plant trade. Well, I did manage to order a Clusia rosea to add to the hoard. I have enough Ficus and ready to add another genus that can grow to tree like forms indoors. I see that there are dwarf varieties available and wonder if they are used for tropical bonsai (as Ficus is).

If a cultivar is referred to as a 'dwarf' there is no guarantee it won't grow to be as large, the leaves will be smaller, or the branching habit (ramification) more dense than the species plant. Generally, the term 'dwarf' is applied to plants which grow in the 1-6" range annually. The primary factors that determine whether the plant's growth rate is on the low or high side is availability of resources like water, light, nutrients, and the length of the grow season. Some species will be natural dwarfs, meaning the entire species can be expected to grow slowly. Other species might have dwarf cultivars found growing as witch's brooms or mutations with an altered genetic code, propagules of which have proven to be stable.

Dwarf fruit trees are often created by grafting scions of normal size fruit trees to compatible root understock known for its tendency to limit growth rate.

Smaller than dwarfs, 'miniature' plants earn the descriptor by growing 1" or less per year. As one might imagine, terms like 'dwarf' and 'miniature' imply the plant will forever remain a wee thing and cute as a button, but alas, the terms are commonly abused by the unscrupulous, who often hang one or the other of the monikers on any plants that tend to grow in a compact form or reliably put on small leaves.

Al