Transplanting potted prize requires wise site selection

Potted plants are a popular holiday gift, especially poinsettia, Christmas cactus and Norfolk Island pine, or perhaps something more exotic or trendy.

Eventually you may want to transplant that prize into your yard or garden. Choosing a location may have the largest impact on whether the plant grows successfully. The mantra one hears over and over regarding landscape design is "The right plant, in the right place."

The importance of this tenet cannot be overstated, especially when considering trees. Due to size and cost of removal, it helps to be sure the site you pick for that little sapling will remain suitable as it grows into a mighty tree in the ensuing decades.

Large trees do have a place in the landscape, provided it is spacious enough to accommodate broad canopies and aggressive root systems.

In Hawaii we often see examples of ill-placed specimens of fast-growing ficus trees such as weeping fig (F. benjamina), Port Jackson fig, Moreton Bay fig and Chinese/Malaysian banyans. The invasive banyans, especially, are very successful competitors, able to sprout out of rock walls, of all places. Eventually the roots reach the underlying soil, and before long the rapidly expanding tree engulfs the whole wall. Wow, that’s one impressive tree.

Recently I saw a 50-year-old photo in which a specimen of the renowned Florida strangler fig was choking a palm tree. The palm eventually died, not due to constriction, but to lack of sunlight.

Strangler figs can refer to several large, fast-growing tropical fig species that sprout in crevices in tree trunks, slowly growing their aerial roots downward toward the ground. Eventually they envelope their hosts in a lattice of thickened and fused roots that prevents the support tree from expanding in growth, ultimately leading to its demise.

The photo reminded me of another tragic "fig-related death" that occurred in Kona several years ago.

It was the fetid stench of decaying flesh emanating from a vacant condo that led authorities to the scene, where an otherwise good plant had gone bad.

Evidently a renegade root from a nearby banyan had entered the condo between the foundation and a wall. The advancing appendage managed to "root out" and apprehend its prey — a refrigerator and freezer laden with sumptuous "choice cuts" from a nearby butcher shop.

The fated fridge was doomed and eventually yielded to the attacking root via an electrical short. However, the banyan burglar was unable to purloin the sirloin from the expired fridge because the frozen meat quickly thawed and soon enough revealed the culprit.

Amazingly, this is a true story. Apparently the condo association does not believe in capital punishment, however, because the fig still lives.

Well, I didn’t mean to frighten those of you with ficus trees in your yard. Now bring us some figgy pudding!

Ty McDonald is a University of Hawaii extension agent and West Hawaii Master Gardener coordinator.