Hayward ca Ficus elastica

That's a nice sized F. elastica 'Decora'. I've seen them bigger in the SF Bay Area, though. I know the tips can be nipped by frost every few years.

This plant? What you see facing this direction,almost as much foliage on the other side is growing over the back wall of this home- a 880 freeway soundwall..it practically trails down that wall like a bushy,dense, vine. Funny thing is?..ANOTHER almost as big..same thing, just a bit farther down the freeway. A good zone for Ficus I guess.
The biggest Ficus elastica has to be the one opposite lake Merrit. Another in Fremont you might have seen? Cut down. The whole house that had looked nice is now a mess.

Is this tree between Tennyson and the 92? I think I've seen this tree before. It doesn't seem to have sustained any frost damage in the last years. I do remember seeing many F. elastica 'Decora' trees the last time I was in Hayward in 2012. I saw several along the 880 freeway heading to San Francisco. Are the large Ficus benjamina trees still there across 880 Freeway from the Oakland Colosseum? I think they were located at a BMW car lot, if I'm not mistaken.

This is the one! I dont recall F.benjamina..but from now on I will look for it. Oakland and Alameda are the only spots with good sized specimens. One in Castro Valley was a nice patio tree..The gardeners of that apartment must have used too much fertilizer in spring..I saw it go from green to brown and defoliate to death I'm sure.
People here just don't know that tropical's with some winter frosting- will grow back!..I've seen them cut down whole plants. Never see that done in soucal.

I suspect there's many large F. elastica 'Decora' around the milder parts of the SF Bay Area. It's too bad the very tall 30' plus tall F. elastica 'Decora' that used to by a three story motel off the 880 Freeway in San Lorenzo was cut down. I suspect it would be have been close to 50' tall by now.

I did know of a ~25 ft tall Ficus benjamina that used to be off Castro Valley Blvd. next to a large three story apartment building. Unfortunately, it was killed in the horrible 1990 freeze. Some amazingly survived in San Leandro, Hayward, Oakland, Fremont and even in San Jose; however, those were in very protected spots.

The Lake Merritt tree is pretty much an older variety- the all green Decora before they came in almost black. That tree Andy, is a big hug..a good sized trunk.
Have you seen the Ficus macrophylla at Shin park? planted in Fremont in 1874..four years after the oldest in the state. Must have taken many a deep freeze.

The F. eleastica 'Decora' trees around Lake Merritt have been there for many years. They survived the 1990 freeze with minimal damage (which was very surprising). There's a huge F. superba 'Heneana' next to the lake which is very large and it survived the 1990 freeze with some damage. It's located across one of the main entrances (but right next to the lake) to the Palmetum.

I used to live in Fremont and remember the F. macrophylla at the Shinn Estate before the 1990 freeze. It was gigantic! It sustained a tremendous amount of damage in the 1990 freeze. I'm sure in 1932 and 1972 it sustained quite a bit of damage and recovered, also. I haven't seen this tree in years, though. I just saw a photo of the it looks like it recovered completely from the 1990 freeze. I remember even the surface roots where damaged in that horrible freeze.

The other trees which are very impressive at Shinn are the old Jubaea chilensis (Chilean Wine Palms). They are some of the largest and oldest trees in the state (I'm guessing). There's several in San Jose which are old, also.

How tall do you think this posted F. elastica 'Decora' is ? It appears to be around 28'. I think the freeway soundwalls are 12', correct?

I wanted to let you know there's a large F. macrophylla which used to be taller and larger than the one at the Shinn Estate and planted around the same time (it too was badly damaged by the 1990 freeze). It's located off of Thornton in Fremont (in a condo development left side of Thornton heading east). It's about a mile to the east of 880 on Thornton (I don't remember the cross street). There's some gigantic Chorisia speciosa trees there, also. I think all these trees were planted from the old California Nursery which was located in Niles.

Do you remember the over 200' tall Norfolk Island Pine which used to be off of Mission Blvd. close to Niles? It died around 1996, not sure if it was old age or drought. It was the tallest Norfolk Island Pine I had ever seen in California at the time. I actually think it may have been even taller than some of the extremely old, tall ones on Coronado Island.

Thanks,I'll have to try google and"drive by" for the big ficus,only... Have you seen the website "Fremontia"? its done by two exotic plant fanatics,one -Nelson Kirk- works for the tri citys and Fremont. He's posted some great Fremont trees over the years. But,as I mentioned before..some of those tree's are long gone. A huge Bottle tree about 30 years old..gone. Mindanao gums..well,a small grove down to two..and like that. One Ficus macrophylla fronting..a condo/apartments?..cut down. I wonder if that's the same one?
I can name many old big plants I put photos of on Daves Garden..and they are gone or just butchered to stumps. The Jacarandas in front of the Hayward plunge?- cut down. As well as that HUGE stone pine in the Japanese garden.

You can get a fremontia link by going to the norcal palmsociety site. He changed last I looked from a .com to .org or something.

That's such a shame about those trees. I know there was a gigantic Podocarpus gracilior in Niles which was cut down in the 90's. I'm guessing it was originally from California Nursery in Fremont, also. I know Podocarpus is common; however, it had the most beautiful, large, round canopy.

This is one of the reason why I left Hayward (the palm haters of the Bay Area) and the Bay Area. Hayward is one of the worst anti-palm cities in the Bay Area. The I know some people on the board and they wanted to cut down all the palms.

Fremont tends to move their palms...this is one of the reasons why I moved to Mission San Jose, Fremont...so many palm-filled streets. San Jose is a very palm-friendly city, also.

A little of what's happened up in the Bay Area has happened here recently. A gorgeous ~60 years old Eyrthina crista-galli was cut down around the corner from where I live. Then all the beautiful, tall Ficus benjamina trees were cut down by a close shopping center...now it looks horrible! It has no trees now. It wasn't the best-looking shopping center to begin with...at least the trees made it bearable to look at.