A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Plants and Flowers Forum Mystery Plants? mystery tree? plant?

Hi, new here and trying to identify this tree/plant I got from my mother-in-law. We lived with her during her last few years. She lived in southern California(Thousand Oaks) when she first got this plant, she said she had it indoors. When I came into the picture she lived in northern California and had it in a pot on the patio on the east side of the house. It seemed to not do well and she got tired of trying to get it to grow, She took it out of the pot and threw it into an empty flower bed area. I took it to the west side of the house where it was more protected by trees and had only a little bit of late afternoon sun. I planted it straight into the ground and it grew like crazy, as tall as the house. When she died and we had to move I dug it up and stuck it in a pot and took it with us. I had to cut it down to about 2 feet high to make it easier to move. It grows pretty good where I have it, it doesn't like direct sun and looses all its branches/leaves in the winter. I tried taking it inside during the winter but it still dropped all its branches/leaves. Leaving just a system of trunks. It is too big for the pot it is in and we can't handle a bigger pot, back and leg issues. I would like to propagate some new plants and don't know how to do it. I tried what I usually do for houseplants; take leaf off and stick in soil and keep it moist till it roots. This doesn't work, neither does putting it into water to grow roots. Not experienced with this type of plant tree and could use some help with identification and propagation. Thank you.

Welcome, Jules. I am not sure what your plant/tree is. It could be a ficus of some type?
It looks like you have some low growth on it. I'd try some ground layering with one or two of those low branches. Strip all but a couple of tip leaves and take the bare branch and break it but not completely apart. Just so it cracks partially. Tuck that break underground still attached to the mama tree for food. I use a wire hanger piece shaped like a "U" to peg it into place. And maybe a rock on top of that. Check every few weeks for root growth where you "broke" it. when it begins to root, cut it away from the parent plant. You can transplant to a new pot or into the ground.

Thank you for the info. I will try that with a few of the low growths.

Looks like a cultivar of Aralia spinosa. I would start researching there.