More information:
Welcome to the Good Growing podcast. I am Chris Enroth, Horticulture Educator with the University of Illinois Extension coming at you from Macomb, Illinois, and we have got a great show for you today. It is the year of the ficus, at least according to the National Gardening Bureau. So we are going to dive into the ficus, genus that is. Oh, and we really bit off a lot more than we can chew, I think.
Chris Enroth: 00:31So you know I'm not gonna do this one by myself. I am joined as always every single week by horticulture educator Ken Johnson in Jacksonville. Hey, Ken.
Ken Johnson: 00:39Hello, Chris. Yeah. When we talked about doing this. I was like, yeah, this shouldn't be too bad.
Ken Johnson: 00:43And then
Chris Enroth: 00:44Mhmm.
Ken Johnson: 00:45Started reading and it's it's ballooning into a two parter.
Chris Enroth: 00:51Yeah. It really is. I, We said ficus the other week, and I thought, oh, yeah. That's just the plant in the corner of the waiting room at the dentist office or something. What's there to know?
Chris Enroth: 01:03Turns out a lot. It's a it's a big genus. And there's a lot more plants in this genus than that I know about that I did not realize were classified as a as a ficus tree. So, yeah, we're gonna dive into it. And I did not realize until really getting into the reading that ficus, another word for it is fig.
Chris Enroth: 01:29So, yeah, we're we're talking about figs today. So that just opens up a whole book of of stuff.
Ken Johnson: 01:40Yeah. Yeah. I'm I'm the same way. Other than I've seen the name for, you know, our edible figs. It's Ficus, but I didn't I never put two and two together until I started reading.
Ken Johnson: 01:50And yeah. I mean, like you mentioned, yeah, there's I found a a review paper on ficus, and this listed 887 species. Now ficus is one of the bigger genera of plants out there.
Chris Enroth: 02:06And that's quite a few. And so, no, folks, we did not learn all about all 887 species. But there are two that are native to The United States, right, Ken, but not exactly to Illinois. That would be strange if they were. But what two native species would we encounter maybe down in the Southern Part of The US?
Ken Johnson: 02:28Yes. So there are two. It's Southern Florida. So we have the Ficus aurea or the Florida strangler fig, and then Ficus citrifolia. So it gets the same because the the leaves kinda resemble citrus leaves.
Ken Johnson: 02:41It's also known as short leaf fig or wild manion tree. Again, also native to South Florida. And both of these are strangler figs. So, basically, these seeds will land in the on a tree, palm tree, what have you. Seeds will germinate, and they'll grow as an epiphyte.
Ken Johnson: 02:57So they're primarily getting their their water and the nutrients from the environment, not necessarily feeding off plant as a parasite, and they will grow and grow. Eventually, those roots will touch the ground, and they will start forming stems and trunks, and basically, they will strangle and close that tree and kill it. So if you have a really big one, there was probably a tree that was growing on it and killed it and left and eventually kinda grew into this tree that can be a 100 feet tall. Mhmm. So they can get quite large.
Chris Enroth: 03:27Well, yeah, they they can look like an entire forest of trees where it it's really just one tree that grew from all of those those prop those propagation roots. Are they propagation roots or prop roots? Because I was reading it as propagation roots, but then I'm like, maybe it's, like, propping the tree up. I maybe I was reading that incorrectly. But it it sends down those aerial rootlets, which then root down on the ground, and I thought, oh, yeah.
Chris Enroth: 03:56Of course. It's propagation roots. But then I'm like, is it supporting roots? Like, prop something up.
Ken Johnson: 04:04Yeah. They usually see it as prop roots. Mhmm. Yeah. I never never thought about it.
Chris Enroth: 04:10It is whatever I want it to be.
Ken Johnson: 04:13I said, when I was in Florida, I didn't go to South Florida that often. But looking back now, I I think you see them it's not rare to see, these two species or other species species of ficus growing in South Florida. At the time, I didn't know what I was looking at because it's all these weird tropical plants that someone from Illinois is not necessarily used to. Or they're growing them as, like, you know, like chef Lira growing his hedges and stuff, which was kinda weird to see. But, yeah, I think you see them looking back, if I'm thinking of the right plants, you know, I think you see them they're not you see them not as regularly, but you do see them in South Florida.
Ken Johnson: 04:55These are other ficus species growing.
Chris Enroth: 04:58Yeah. And, I mean, if I look back in my memory, again, I think of ficus as this little house plant in the corner somewhere. But if I go into some of these other larger growing areas, like a large greenhouse, a conservatory, like the Climatron in at St. Louis, Botanical Garden in Missouri, you'll see these exact same ficus, the the genus, those houseplants, and they will have these aerial rootlets, these prop roots coming down, which I yeah. I would just thought, well, I'm I'm just not gonna get that because I'm growing it in a pot in the corner of the room.
Chris Enroth: 05:41But but, yeah, there's a few other other things that that come in with that. I think a lot of what I was reading was humidity. Like, they really like a decent humid environment, which then allows them to create those aerial rootlets to then grow into these things. So, I mean, the summer's one thing in Illinois. We got plenty of humidity that time of year.
Chris Enroth: 06:00But right now, we are in, like, you know, chapped hands, chapped lips, time in Illinois. The air is dry as a bone. So, there's no arrow rootlets being produced on my ficus tree. I'll tell you that.
Ken Johnson: 06:15Yeah. A lot of these plants are tropical or so tropical. And I think and I didn't you know, you when you read about I guess, you read about, like, different sections, so they're broken up within the genocene of these different sections. And I think the strangler figs are one section. I think those have a lot of those properties.
Ken Johnson: 06:32I don't know if all the others, like or edible fig is in a different section than that. I don't I don't think they produce. I've never seen aerial roots or anything like that Mhmm. On the trees. They're good to lie.
Ken Johnson: 06:43That could depend on the one, humidity and two, the just what section they're in and because I I think there's multiple section. I read much more about the oh, I'm drawing a blank on the term now on the classification of stuff that I ever thought I was going to on the on these.
Chris Enroth: 07:08Well well, we have got some things to dive into. And and when we get into this, you know, we're talking everything from trees, shrubs, and vines. I saw I I watched a couple of videos on YouTube just to get a bit more familiar with what these plants look like. The vining ones are really neat. They were able to adhere to a lot of, like, rough surfaces, and you can find them climbing around on all over the place.
Chris Enroth: 07:32And and, you know, a lot of them, they're characterized as as ficus or fig. You know, a lot of them have a very smooth, shiny leaf surface. But those these vining ones, as they new leaves were emerging, there were these beautiful red color of that leaf tissue. And and I I I've grown a few other things. So, like, the my my rubber tree, which I used to have for years, that also, as those leaves would first emerge from the tip, were nice, like, a really faint red color.
Chris Enroth: 08:06Some of those vining ones, just the the the appeal of those leaves were just just that color of the new leaves. I thought it was really beautiful. And they're all very glossy, very shiny. And I guess one one characteristic that do all ficus have this? I I think so is that they all have, like, a stipule on the terminal leaf bud.
Chris Enroth: 08:27So that terminal leaf bud is covered by the stipule, it opens up, and there's this sheath there and that protects that leaf, and then it persists there at the base of the leaf for a while. So my my rubber tree definitely had that. The stipule was was definitely a ornamental characteristic, I'll say. And then it would shed the stipule once the leaf was fully emerged, and and I just pull it pick it up off the ground.
Ken Johnson: 08:55Yeah. I don't know. That's characteristic of all. Yeah. Same thing with the other room too.
Ken Johnson: 09:01We have we see the same thing. I don't know when you're reading about it. There are two things I remember that are kinda characteristic. They all have this kinda waxy not waxy, white latex, white or yellowish latex that they produce. So if you're pruning them or you damage one, you get all this latex production.
Ken Johnson: 09:20And then the flowers are pretty unique, so they're called a zirconium. So, basically, it's kinda turned inside out. All the flowers are inside. It's basically kind of a a fleshy stem with flowers on the inside of it, and there's a little hole that wasp will go in to pollinate. Then certain species of wasp.
Ken Johnson: 09:39Usually, the the species specifics, we have a particular species of wasp that helps pollinate a specific species of ficus. But that is a that is a whole another rabbit hole to go down for another day because that that could be a podcast. Well
Chris Enroth: 10:01yeah. And and I saw you know, the the flowers can vary. A lot of times, the the flowers and then fruit are born and they axle the leaf. But sometimes, kinda like our redbud, they exhibit cauliflory where it it it flowers and fruits on the actual trunk. Similar to our redbud that also those nice little purple flowers in the spring, and then you get those pods develop on there.
Chris Enroth: 10:26So, you know, some, depending upon the species, you can get one or the other with our ficus. I personally have never seen a my rubber tree or the the weeping ficus or or any of the others, I've never seen them flower. So I'm sure they do, and those pictures do exist out there, but I don't have them.
Ken Johnson: 10:49Yeah. From what I've read, it's it is very not very common to have your your house ficus growing as a houseplant flower. It's you never like I say, it's never gonna happen, but if it does happen, you may wanna go buy a lottery ticket or you're doing something right.
Chris Enroth: 11:07Mhmm. So I but I guess growing in the wild, you know, in our house, we're we're keeping this 100 some foot tree pruned down to what? 10 feet? So it's never gonna reach that milestone maybe that that triggers that that flowering or or fruit production. But in the wild, these are considered kind of a ecologically important species.
Chris Enroth: 11:28Right, Ken? Like, they're once they get to a mature size, they they're productive.
Ken Johnson: 11:34Yeah. Especially in tropical areas, a lot of places, they're they're kind of keystone species because of that pollination because they are specific. You have this one species of wasp, maybe a couple pollinating these plants that are continuously flowering and fruiting just because, you know, you don't wanna have a a long period with no flowers while your pollinators die. You're not gonna reproduce. So they're constantly fruiting, so it's an important food source for a lot of mammals and birds.
Ken Johnson: 11:59And there's a lot of other insects and stuff that will feed on the leaves and stuff as well. So a keystone species and a lot of tropical ecosystems. Again, you know, the the plants we're growing as houseplants can grow to be 100 feet tall and live for for a very long time. Yeah.
Chris Enroth: 12:18And and and so as you you've seen folks that this is a very diverse group of plants found around the world, and now we are about to speak in intense and immense, I will say, generalities of care. So when we get into taking care of these plants in in our homes, I I will say, like, a very common joke, is, sorry. I can't do that. I gotta stay home and take care of my ficus, which is like if you've ever owned and and taken care of a a ficus tree, sometimes some of them can be a handful. You know, you look at it wrong, and it just drops all of its leaves.
Chris Enroth: 13:00But let's talk in some generalities, though, because I'm thinking of the weeping ficus as as one of them. But there's generally speaking, I would say that the ones I have grown have been very sensitive to how much water I give it. It's weird. It's sometimes it's like I'm I've been giving it too much, and other times it's, like, too little. Sometimes it goes, like, a whole month without getting water and does perfectly fine.
Chris Enroth: 13:27And then, you know, you get in a dry period like we are right now, at least in the interior of our homes, and and the plant really seems to languish. And so one thing you can try is all the little humidity tricks, I think, in this time of year. You know, putting pebbles in the saucer with rock, grouping your plants together, getting a humidifier nearby. One interesting thing I saw online was somebody took sphagnum moss, and they soaked it in a bucket of water, and then they mulched their plants with that sphagnum moss. And it's sorta released some of that moisture slowly over the course of a few weeks.
Chris Enroth: 14:04So you're not necessarily watering the soil. You're just keeping that the top of the soil hydrated, which as it evaporates helps to maybe raise the humidity just a a fraction of a percentage, I would suppose, around that plant. But do you have any more humidity tricks, Ken, that I'm not thinking about?
Ken Johnson: 14:24Yeah. And if you've got one plant, you know, the tray of water with rocks in it, with water to keep that pot out of the water. There's a lot of reading out there with with ficus, you know, under and overwatering. You know, if you've got a pot and they're sitting in that water, you're gonna keep that soil too moist, which can cause leaf drop and stuff, which is you think about tropical trees, usually think about having very very wet conditions, but a lot of times, water isn't necessarily making it down to the ground. It's getting intercepted up in that tree canopy, so not letting them sit in water.
Ken Johnson: 14:59So if you are doing that that gravel, make sure that's elevated and that water's not up above, up into the pot so it's not you're not having this constantly moist, growing media.
Chris Enroth: 15:10Mhmm. Mhmm. And, yeah, I I yeah. One of the tricks, I think, with with a lot of house plants is you sort of take them to that edge of, like, oh, not enough water and then, you know, supplying enough. So probably some of the most useful things I I learned when it comes to figuring out if a plant needs water is is literally picking up rocking the pot, picking it up, how does it feel.
Chris Enroth: 15:34And that just becomes you know, as as you become more familiar with, like, if pot is this heavy, if it has a lot of water in it, or if it's too dry. The other thing is just moisture by feel. Stick your finger there in the top of the, potting mix. If you can go down about an inch or more or about an inch, two inches, and it feels dry, you need to water. Easier said than done because sometimes these ficus plants can get pretty root bound.
Ken Johnson: 16:01Yeah. So and I think it's one of those things that where you read a lot of times, they I don't know. They don't necessarily like it. They can tolerate it. So, you know, you do you do need to repot them on occasion.
Ken Johnson: 16:13Some of them can handle that rootbound a little bit other better than others. But, typically, again, generally speaking for the ficus, kind of a lighter, faster draining soil is what we're gonna be looking for. Again, they don't like sitting in that that really that moist soil all the time when it dry out and and stuff. So or top dressing. If you got a real big pot, you don't have to repot constantly.
Chris Enroth: 16:38Mhmm. Yeah. If you'd be bringing in garden soil and potting that with some of your houseplants, don't the ficus is definitely not gonna like that one. It's too heavy. Needs water to move away from the roots.
Chris Enroth: 16:51Needs water, but it doesn't need water to be sitting up against the roots for a prolonged period of time.
Ken Johnson: 16:57And I'll say another thing for a Ficus, and this is something I need to do to my rubber tree, is occasionally clean the leaves, especially, like, rubber tree, the ones with the big leaves. I'm pretty sure I could write my name on the leaves right now. So, occasionally, wiping them off, just all you need is water. You don't need to add any oils or anything like that. It's gonna clog the the the pores and the stomates and all that.
Ken Johnson: 17:20So just water. If it's a really big plant, you know, take a shower with it. Some lukewarm water, clean it off. But do that on occasion. You get that a lot of that dust or whatever accumulating on those leaves that, you know, reduces the amount of light they can take in, reduces photosynthesis.
Ken Johnson: 17:36So add that to your you know, maybe when you're watering, have a a damp rag with you, wipe off the leaves.
Chris Enroth: 17:45Yeah. For the longest time, my rubber plant was here in my office with me and our the cleaning crew that would come in once a week, they sort of ran like a a duster over everything. And, you know, I'd I'd be here and I'd talk to them, and they're like, oh, yeah. We dust your rubber tree all the time because it and I'm like, well, that's pretty handy. So I need to bring in more house plants here to get cleaned off.
Chris Enroth: 18:12But they don't they're not hungry plants, I would say. They're they're not wanting much fertilizer. They're not wanting to be fed nutrients as as frequently, especially some of our variegated foliage ones. Because when you have variegated foliage, that means you photosynthesize less, which means you grow slower. Also means you're more susceptible to stress if you can't photosynthesize as much to feed yourself, but that's another thing.
Chris Enroth: 18:42But, yeah, they they they're not very demanding when it comes to nutrients. But if you do wanna provide some type of supplemental nutrition, it's it's a really dilute liquid feeding. I I would say once a month, but, some of the things I read, it was, like, once a week. I'm like, oh, that's that sounds a little rich. But but but, yeah, I I would say a dilute liquid feeding once a month.
Chris Enroth: 19:06This maybe depends on your growing conditions. If you if you notice that the the plant might be yellowing, nothing else has changed, you just haven't fed it anything, it'll maybe up the fertilizer a little bit.
Ken Johnson: 19:17Yeah. Kind of on the other end of that, I read some stuff of, you know, people only doing it couple times a year fertilizing. So you kinda get the whole game with that. And, typically, like most house plants, usually, you're you're not doing a whole lot of fertilizing in the winter this time of year. We know it's cooler, not as much late, so they're not growing as much.
Ken Johnson: 19:36So it's typically that active growing is when you're gonna be adding that that fertilizer. So spring, summer, especially if you take them outside and they're, you know, getting more light than they typically would indoors, that may be a good time if if you think they need it to add that fertilizer. But, you know, that's just the dilute.
Chris Enroth: 19:57Or just add compost. Mix that in with your, potting mix when you repot it. That's one thing. The other item that I know people ask me about, what do I do when my plant gets too big for any kind of like, I can barely move this thing. How am I gonna get at this out of a pot and repot it?
Chris Enroth: 20:22Or they don't sell pots that big, not at least within my budget. I recall when I did a internship at Missouri Botanical Garden, if anyone's ever been there for their Christmas show I don't know if they still do because mind you, this was over twenty years ago. But they they have this huge warehouse y like space, and there are these gigantic fig trees ficus trees, the the weeping ones that I I I mean, they're they're humongous. They're in pots the size of my my desk. My arms don't even go as wide as as the pots were, and they're on these massive rollers.
Chris Enroth: 21:05And it was so neat to be able to push these things kind of around the room and rearrange your forest around you, but that was where they would set up their annual Christmas or holiday show. And I recall, like, well, how do you you can't repot that thing. I mean, maybe they can because it's the botanical garden. But you get a big plant. What are you supposed to do, Ken, when you is can is there anything you can do for those large large trees?
Ken Johnson: 21:33I'll say, again, I think as a general rule, ficus, can be pruned and handle pruning fairly well, so that would be something you could look at as as pruning it at least top growth and root growth too to make it a little bit smaller to fit into those areas a little better.
Chris Enroth: 21:51Or or just build an addition to your house just for your
Ken Johnson: 21:54Yeah. Greenhouse.
Chris Enroth: 21:55Ficus. Yeah. Greenhouse addition. So we all should have I think we all need to we all need one of those. Make it normal to have a greenhouse on on your home.
Chris Enroth: 22:05Everybody, let's do it.
Ken Johnson: 22:06I keep telling my wife we need to, but she hasn't gone for it.
Chris Enroth: 22:11Forget the kitchen. We're putting a greenhouse in.
Ken Johnson: 22:14You can cook in the greenhouse.
Chris Enroth: 22:16Yeah. There you go. You can. Sweat with your food. Alright.
Chris Enroth: 22:23I think we covered some of the the general questions people might have when when dealing with their their particular ficus. But we do have we we wanna dive into some of these more specific ones on there. Think this is a list. We didn't go through all of them because, again, 887 is a lot. But the National Guardian Bureau did have a list of mostly common ones.
Chris Enroth: 22:47I think we went through. They were like, I don't know if a couple of these are very common, but we we went through the the mostly common ones. So I suppose, Ken, should we dive into these, more specific species of ficus?
Ken Johnson: 23:01I think we should. And I would say a caveat to the more common. Just remember we live in West Central Illinois. Mhmm. So, you know, if you're in Chicago, larger population areas, it may be a little easier to find some of the the ones that we don't see, very often.
Ken Johnson: 23:18We'll add that caveat in there.
Chris Enroth: 23:20If if you have the Banyan Cafe in Downtown Chicago and you can go get all the, ficus, species down there, tell me where to find you. I'll I'll meet you there. I just gotta take a train. Well, Kent, you wanna start us off? I think I'm one of the more common ones out there, the weeping, the ficus.
Ken Johnson: 23:45Yes. Yes. We've we've mentioned or hinted at this one a little bit. So ficus benjamina, weeping fig, weeping ficus, whatever we wanna call it. So this one is native to, Southeast Asia, Australia.
Ken Johnson: 23:57So, again, more of a a tropical climate than we would have here, in Illinois. So this growing in the wild, forty, fifty feet tall, 25 to 30 foot spread. So, again, decent sized tree. And, typically, when we're growing this indoors, we're growing this two, three feet tall, maybe 10 feet tall, depending how tall your ceilings are and all that. So we're keeping this significantly smaller than it would be growing in the wild in the ground.
Ken Johnson: 24:24Now it's like bright, indirect, kinda sunny locations. It can also do shadier conditions. This is the one where where I think a lot of times people have all of a sudden the leaves drop. So this one is is kind of sensitive to changing conditions. So light intensity drops.
Ken Johnson: 24:43You have it outside, you bring it inside, drop the sleeves, put new ones on. Your watering changes, drop the leaves, you know, put new ones on. So this one, maybe a little more finicky, than some of the others. But, yeah, this is the one where, yeah, I think the office the office plant that you see a lot of times, whether real or fake, would be the the weeping fig.
Chris Enroth: 25:06Yeah. I I have a specific memory of childhood with this one. So I remember being in my German class, and our teacher had a potted weeping fig in the corner, and it was infested in white flies. And if you it was like a like a gag, a prank for someone to walk by the plant. And any hapless student sitting next to it, you'd shake it, and these white flies would just mercilessly kinda fly all over the the person sitting by it.
Chris Enroth: 25:43And in reading this, where these things grow out, like in Florida, white fly are a major issue with these plants. And so that just when I read that, I it triggered that memory of childhood sitting in German class and and getting attacked by whitefly.
Ken Johnson: 26:03And so these have kinda oval shaped green leaves. There are variegated cultivars Mhmm. That are I don't know if we're actually gonna go through cultivar names because there's a lot out there, and it constantly changes, who knows what's available now. But there are there are multiple cultivars of weeping fig that are available in the trade.
Chris Enroth: 26:26Mhmm. And I'm glad you mentioned, Ken, that this is a very common fake plant as well. It might be the most common one out there that I see.
Ken Johnson: 26:36Don't need to water those.
Chris Enroth: 26:38No. You don't. You still need to dust them, though. Oh, yeah. I I I think the I think the weeping fig also has more of that accumulate leaf tip, whereas ones we might look at that might be similar have more of a blunt leaf tip on there, so it might be one another distinguishing point of it.
Ken Johnson: 26:58So pointy. Mhmm. Pointy. In layman's terms.
Chris Enroth: 27:03Yeah. Put put it put it in your in your classroom, folks, and make sure it gets infested with whitefly. Your students will remember it for the rest of their lives like me. Alright. Well, this next one is Ficus elastica, also known as Rubber Tree.
Chris Enroth: 27:19This one is native to Nepal, China, and the Western Malaysia. This is another one that can grow a 100 foot tall if you let it. If you grow it inside, you're probably pruning it down max 10 feet, I would say, probably usually between, like, two to five feet tall in your own home. I once propagated this one. It was in down at SIU Carbondale.
Chris Enroth: 27:44It was, you know, horticulture propagation class. This is the one where we we propagated this one, and this particular one that we propagated from was growing in a greenhouse in Southern Illinois. If anybody knows about Southern Illinois, it it's hot. It is very hot. And if you're a plant grown in a greenhouse down there, you gotta be tough.
Chris Enroth: 28:05This plant sort of just overtook the entire, like, end, like, the half of this greenhouse. And I think they relied on students coming in to take cuttings of this plant to control its size. And so, yeah, repeated cuttings of this plant, but it was happy as could be growing in the full blazing sun. I had my rubber tree. I killed it last year on purpose.
Chris Enroth: 28:33I got tired of it. I was one of those okay. I've hauled you around for two decades. I propagated it. I actually gave it away to people, which is so it is still growing somewhere else in other people's homes, but the main one, I I I did let go of.
Chris Enroth: 28:52And so but but, yeah, long lived, tough plant. It has these really long elongated stiff leaves, you know, something you can fan someone with on a hot day. I think the leaves the leaves can vary in colors. Ken mentioned with the weeping one that they they can have variegation. They can have different colors.
Chris Enroth: 29:15The one I had was mostly like a a a bright green, but depending upon the age of the leaf, as we kinda mentioned before, you can have, like, a really dark green, sometimes tinted with some, like, pink, purple, or maroon colors. And then, of course, the stipules also add a little bit more color and and decorative value, I think, indoors. True to its name, it is called the rubber tree or rubber plant. It does produce that milky sap in excess, I would say, more than any other of these plants in that we're discussing today. And so this is the one, you know, I I I recall, like, if someone would, like, brush up against my plant and they would snap a leaf, you don't notice it right away.
Chris Enroth: 29:55And then, you know, later that day, like, why is the floor all sticky? It's because it'll drip sap all over the floor. And this true to the same, it would be a a natural rubber material. It is latex, like a natural latex material. It was once used, I think, to make natural rubbers.
Chris Enroth: 30:15It is no longer used to do that. There is another tree, Heavenia braziliensis, something like that. That is it's in the Euphorbiaaceae family. So think back to poinsettias. Poinsettias, when you break their leaves off, they also produce that that that sap.
Chris Enroth: 30:34So this Euphorbia, that is the one that is commercially used to make natural rubber materials. But there's also synthetic rubber materials that are probably more commonly out there. So, anyway, the Ficus elastica, the rubber tree, is no longer used for any commercial production of this. Now I mentioned that this plant that I propagated from was growing in the full blazing sun of a greenhouse. I really think it just adapts sort of to wherever you put it.
Chris Enroth: 31:06So the leaves will adapt to maybe a a more intense sunshine if that's where you have it. It'll develop maybe a thicker wax or cuticle to to survive those more intense light conditions. But generally speaking with our rubber trees, like all our others, it I really like kind of a partial to low light, maybe no not necessarily very direct light setting in your home. Somewhat dry soil. I kept mine fairly dry, I'll say, on purpose.
Chris Enroth: 31:36Forgetting to water it most of the time. But and and it tolerated me for for years. But relatively high humidity, I would say, and, you know, don't don't could put them outside on a day like today when it's 20 degrees out. So you really you'll see active growth of this plant if you're 55 degrees or warmer. Yeah.
Chris Enroth: 31:59Just just watch your watering. Don't overwater it.
Ken Johnson: 32:02So we've got a a rubber tree. It's my wife's. Don't know when she got it. She had it for a long time. It's one of the ones that's got the darker green, almost black Mhmm.
Ken Johnson: 32:11Leaves on it. It's one we it got rather, leggy at one point, so we act you know, hacked it back, down, kind of the nodes, try to get some more branching on it. So much successful doing that. We had we hacked back on it pretty good, and it came back just fine. So Yeah.
Ken Johnson: 32:30We can't we can't abuse it to to some extent.
Chris Enroth: 32:35Yep. And and you know one one of the main reasons why I got rid of mine other than I was getting big too big is that I had pruned it, and I probably was a little too aggressive. And the plant was fine, but it responded and it was just ugly. The the growth form, I was just like, what? What did I do?
Chris Enroth: 32:59I really I screwed it up. So don't blame the plant. It it was me and my pruning. So, you know, I salvaged what I could. Like I said, took cuttings, gave them away to people, yeah, got rid of it.
Ken Johnson: 33:15Alright. So next one in our list is Bicus birata or fiddle leaf fig. So this one is native to Africa, Western And Central Africa, you know, the the tropical band. They're in Africa. Another another big one, sixty to a 100 feet tall, when grown, you know, in outdoor native conditions.
Ken Johnson: 33:35Again, here is a house plant at at two to 10 feet tall depending on how big or small, you wanna make it. It's got these large, really broad, lyre shaped, so the instrument, thus the scientific name. Leaves on it. They're green, 18 inches long. Again, big even bigger than our rubber plant, our rubber tree, leaves on this one.
Ken Johnson: 33:57Now I can think this is another one that you see, in office settings somewhat regularly. And, again, another and rubber tree too, another popular fake plant, plastic plant, or whatever, silk plant, whatever they're made out of nowadays. I I personally have not grown this one. I know I've seen them being grown, but I've not grown. So I think the rubber tree is the only ficus I have knowingly grown.
Ken Johnson: 34:22There may be others through the years that I didn't know when I was growing, but, but this one is another, can take that that bright indirect light, partial shade if you're growing it outdoors. Again, you know, a lot of times when we're growing house plants aside, they may be able to take full sun, but when we're growing them inside for most of the year, then bringing them out, they're not gonna be able to handle that, that full sun. So typically, we're doing that in partial shade just so we don't burn up the leaves when we move them out. And then when we bring them in, if we're growing them in full sun, they're not gonna be very happy and drop everything. So we kinda try to keep those conditions consistent, that that sun intensity.
Ken Johnson: 34:56Again, like like the others, well drained. So it was maybe a little more acidic soils they may like, so maybe a little more of a peat based, potting mix, for something like that. And, again, another one that, you know, don't overwater. They can cause some leaf drop and some issues with the plants if you are a little heavy handed on your watering. Don't know if this one if you can find, if there's any variegated ones out there.
Ken Johnson: 35:31Probably imagine there probably are. And I think there's some some dwarf forms that stay smaller have smaller leaves as well. So, again, the kind of a a wide variety of cultivar sizes, shapes, colors that you can find out there. Mhmm. Yeah.
Chris Enroth: 35:49Yeah. Most of these are pretty oval shaped leaves. This particular one has a much more undulations in the the edge of the leaf. Alright. Well, our next one is one I never thought of as a houseplant, because to me, it's more of, like, an iconic, like like, tropical type tree.
Chris Enroth: 36:16It's a ficus bingalonensis or binglihonensis. It's the banyan tree. I think another is a synonym for this, the audrey ficus audrey. Is that what that was?
Ken Johnson: 36:29Yeah. I think it had when you see it as a houseplant, I think a lot of them just Ficus Audrey.
Chris Enroth: 36:33Yeah. Yeah. This is it I guess it's kind of this, like, iconic tree. It is the national tree of India. It's native to India, Pakistan, Eastern Himalayas, Nepal, Sri Sri Lanka.
Chris Enroth: 36:49It's one of the world's largest trees. Again, where you're like, a house plant, really? But, yeah, you know, the the Ficus Audrey, that's what you would look for if you were shopping for this at a store online, and it's really based upon that canopy size. So this is one of those trees that starts as an epiphyte and a different tree, sends down those area rootlets, those and forms those prop roots, trunks, and this then just expands, strangles that that host tree that it began on. Some of these trees can be thousands of years old.
Chris Enroth: 37:25It it looks like you're walking into a forest when you are actually just walking underneath one tree that is just spanning over several square feet, you know, hundreds of square feet. So it it's a really neat tree. When people think of the the banyan tree, I think there's a lot of images that come to mind. And yeah. But but, yeah, you can maintain this particular one as a as a house plant.
Chris Enroth: 37:53I think it looks a lot like rubber tree, though. At least the leaves do. Oval shaped, dark green, glossy. They do have, like, their their their venation of their leaves. There can be some color there too that might make a help stand out slightly different slightly more than the the rubber tree.
Chris Enroth: 38:12And and so I it but, again, to me, this looks just like a larger version of the rubber tree. Hasn't it was really neat when it's grown up, you know, nice, smooth, gray bark. And, yeah, I I just I think it's a a really neat tree. I think it's it's more noted for the abundance of those arrow rootlets that it sends down to the ground. But if you are growing this one inside, you know, you're looking for, like a lot of these others, bright indirect light, moist, well drained soil.
Chris Enroth: 38:43It's gonna be a a good potting mix that you're gonna wanna invest in for this. Possibly mix it with perlite for better drainage with a neutral pH. It it does prefer warmer temperatures, so, between sixty five and eighty degrees Fahrenheit, and keep it away. You know, if you have a door that you open frequently that's gonna be drafty, or or near the heat register, you kinda wanna protect it from those drafts or any sudden temperature changes that you might ex that tree might experience. So maybe more central location in your house.
Chris Enroth: 39:18And, again, humidity level, 50 to 80% is what it likes. So, yeah, maybe we need to invest in a whole house humidifier, Ken. I don't know. That might be something to look into.
Ken Johnson: 39:30And maybe stop those bloody noses too.
Chris Enroth: 39:33Yes. It would. Yeah. You know, I I have seen I have seen we we had one master gardener that we're we went to their house for a a meeting, and they had an atrium in the middle of their house, and they had a banyan tree in their atrium. I'm like, that's cool.
Chris Enroth: 39:51And the atrium span two stories, you know, the first and second story. Like, man, one day one day, have my own atrium, the Bonnetree.
Ken Johnson: 40:03Those lottery tickets. Just keep buying them. And I will say this one, in some parts of the world, I think, what was it? Australia, The Bahamas, it is considered an invasive species. So not nowhere in The US.
Ken Johnson: 40:19I thought maybe Florida, but looks like it's not terribly common in Florida. So it's not, at least as of, let's say, 01/20/2026, not invasive in in The US anywhere.
Chris Enroth: 40:32Would it be naturalized? Like, does it kinda grow, though, in Florida? One of these one of these is a naturalized species. So they don't like it, but it's there, like dandelions.
Ken Johnson: 40:49Yes. Yeah. I think it it can grow there. It does grow there. But from what I have seen, doing what we're looking at, it's not terribly widespread.
Ken Johnson: 40:59Mhmm. So not not causing issues as of now.
Chris Enroth: 41:06I guess maybe not in the house, but, again, growing wild, you know, this thing does fruit. So it does have these starts out as, like, these yellowish orange fruit, and these develop in the leaf axles of of the tree, and then they kind of mature into a reddish purple. And so yeah. Neat plant. I'll get an atrium one day, and I'll start growing it myself.
Ken Johnson: 41:33Yeah. We we did find a document from University of Florida Ficus Trees. Mhmm. Ficus Trees and Vine of Florida, that we can link to, that covers all these species we're gonna talk about. But this is pictures of them growing outdoors to their full size, in Florida.
Chris Enroth: 41:52So Yeah.
Ken Johnson: 41:54Maybe I think think I'm editing this week. I'll try to find pictures to throw in while we're discussing these. But if not, we'll link to that, and you can see full size pictures. See your houseplants in the in their full glory.
Chris Enroth: 42:08Yes. It's like, wow. They can do that. I'm kind of jealous. I I I remarked to Ken as we're looking through this document, like, these are beautiful trees.
Chris Enroth: 42:16So take a road trip.
Ken Johnson: 42:20Yes. We got lots of road trips planned here.
Chris Enroth: 42:23So many. More than we can afford.
Ken Johnson: 42:27Time for a sabbatical.
Chris Enroth: 42:29Those don't exist anymore.
Ken Johnson: 42:35Alright. Our next one here is Ficus mecleliandi, e I I don't know. It's a nice thing about these scientific names. Nobody knows how to say them. Yeah.
Ken Johnson: 42:48So this is the banana slash longleaf fig or ficus ali is what was what you'll see typically, again, in the houseplant trade is ficus ali for this one. Native to India, Southeast Asia, China, that part of the world. Again, we're typically growing these houseplants six, ten feet tall, give or take. This one has kinda long, narrow lance shaped leaves. So a little bit different, look and texture than a lot of these other ficus, which have much more broad leaves, compared to to this one, at least the ones we've talked about.
Ken Johnson: 43:18Now a little interesting history on this one I found, this from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. I think that's where bbg.org is.
Chris Enroth: 43:26Mhmm.
Ken Johnson: 43:27So this was in the '18 nineteen eighties. This was introduced, into kind of the the house plant trade, by two different, companies, so the Craft Gardens Incorporated and Aloha Foliage. So Craft Gardens, gave it the name of banana leaf fig, whereas Aloha Foliage called it and got a trademark for Ali, which should be spelled a l I apostrophe I, which is Hawaiian Hawaiian for royalty. So, again, Ficus Ali is what we see typically. So that's how we got to them.
Ken Johnson: 44:00And they it's kinda a little bit kinda similar to the Ficus benjamani, the the weeping fig. Leaves are a little bit different, but it's a little more durable, compared to that one. So that maybe you know, if you if you kinda like that that look, this may be one to look at if you want one that's not quite as finicky. Maybe it's kinda got more willow like foliage compared to to broader. So
Chris Enroth: 44:27Yeah. I remember seeing this one in, like, malls and stuff, when I was growing up. I I I recall this one, clearly. You know, you had your fountains going over here, and you had a little atrium area planted with this, kinda willow like weeping the Pyrene fig. Yeah.
Chris Enroth: 44:46And and I do remember, I I once competed in a a national competition for interior design. I'll just say I was on the team for for SIU Carbondale. They had no one to do it. I did it. I remember this plan on that list, that they supplied, and I had no idea what it was, being an Illinois person.
Chris Enroth: 45:08Like, no clue. Let's just put all this somewhere. So, yeah, got fourteenth place in the country. So
Ken Johnson: 45:18Good job.
Chris Enroth: 45:19I think I think it was out of, like, 25 people, so not that impressive.
Ken Johnson: 45:22Well, I think that's better than 14.
Chris Enroth: 45:25I guess so. Alright. Well, this next one that we're gonna talk about is Ficus microcarpa. So when you see micro, you always know, like, in your head, small. So this one is known as the Chinese banyan or Indian laurel.
Chris Enroth: 45:47The one name I see recurring, though, is, like, ginseng ficus. And that that micro, again, is kinda sends off a little little alarm bell in your head. What does that mean? Micro? Well, if you wanna get into bonsai, this is the plant for you.
Chris Enroth: 46:04This is a really good intro plant for bonsai because it really does tolerate more heavy pruning, tightly clipped habit, and it it has these, like, thicker, darker leaves to it. They're only three to five inches oval shape, just kinda like what the rubber tree and the other banyan tree that we talked about. The bark is is is grayish to white, and you can just prune this into just this little beautiful little micro bonsai. And so, yeah, it it's just because the leaves are a little bit smaller, it can it can handle that that effect, I will say, miniature tree effect. Now in the wild, though, it's gonna grow 40 foot tall or more and has been used historically as a street tree.
Chris Enroth: 47:01The, aerial roots, it still does produce those. You know, they they can send down the roots and damage things like sidewalks, driveways, even roadways. So you're gonna have to manage these. And so in a lot of cases where they have been planted as street trees, people have to come by and and prune off all of the the aerial rootlets or the the prop, roots that that show up and, just to keep it from from from becoming an issue. And this is the one, I think, that has has naturalized in Florida.
Chris Enroth: 47:39And I don't know if they've they've deemed it officially invasive, but it is considered invasive in a lot of other countries around the world. And, yeah, I think this is the one that when I was reading some this this publication out of Florida said, be a good neighbor. Don't plant this on the property line because it will spread out with those arrow rootlets. So, yeah, if if you live in a place where you can plant these outside, don't put them on the edge of your property line.
Ken Johnson: 48:13And I think this one too, the leaves, like, they grow grow closer together, which gives you a more full look, which is good for the bonsai bonsai. Mhmm. I know how you properly say that.
Chris Enroth: 48:26I I was told it is bone, like, the bone in your arm and sigh, like the action that we do when we're frustrated or tired or ready for the podcast to be over. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I had a great time talking Ficus.
Ken Johnson: 48:45So That's that's the listeners right now.
Chris Enroth: 48:49I just heard a sigh go out across the state of Illinois. I wish everyone in the state of Illinois listened to us. Wouldn't that be nice?
Ken Johnson: 48:59It would. Yeah. Someday. Someday we'll get there. Like, conquer the world, maybe.
Ken Johnson: 49:07Yep. Alright. We had one last, on our list for the, I guess I don't know. A little more easy to find, Ficus that are out there, at least in our opinions anyway. So this is ficus pumila pumila, creeping fig.
Ken Johnson: 49:28So this is another, Asian species. So, again, China, Japan, Taiwan, Southeast Asia area. This one, creeping, so it can grow as a vine. So you get 18 eight to 15 feet long, three to six foot wide spread, and it's kind of similar to English ivy, where it's climbing and supporting itself. There's a short roots as it's attaching itself to whatever it's growing on.
Ken Johnson: 49:51One to two inch leaves on it, typically are gonna be green. As you're gonna be growing this on a vine, you can grow this, train this up, like those topiary shapes or the plant poles, wooden frames, what have you. Give us something to anchor to. Probably don't wanna grow and cross your walls. Because when it comes time to move it, you're gonna be repainting or replacing drywall potentially.
Ken Johnson: 50:15You could also grow it as a ground cover. And if you got a larger, pot, put this in there so you can have a, you know, bigger ficus tree with your your creeping fig, creeping ficus, growing across the the top of the, the pot there.
Chris Enroth: 50:30I I will say one neat thing I saw. I don't know if it was this exact species of ficus, but someone had a larger larger of the the the weeping fig, and then they planted the the base with the creeping fig. I think it was creeping fig. It was actually pretty neat how they how they set that all up. But but, yeah, it it, it did remind me of English ivy, how it climbed.
Chris Enroth: 51:06So it climbs, and then when it grows horizontally, you know, then it sends out its flowers and fruits. That's like tropical English ivy if I think more about this. Yeah.
Ken Johnson: 51:19Yeah. Looking at, again, that Florida document, which will be in the show notes, they've got some pictures of it. Somebody grew it on their house and their what do they say? Prune close to the wall every other month with a hedge trimmer. So the leaves stay small and don't get big.
Ken Johnson: 51:35And and looking at those pictures, you know, the they've got so they got a mature and a newer leaf, and they're there's pretty big difference between size there. The leaves kinda look a little bit like winter paper too. So think, like, you know, the the the picture I got there, you know, think of Rayleigh Field, the ivy growing out there. It just looks very similar to that from a distance.
Chris Enroth: 52:01Mm-mm. Yeah. Well well, that is it for our specific profiles on on these particular species of fig. Now everyone's probably yelling at us, Ken. Well, what about Ficus curica, the the Mediterranean fig, you know, the one that we like to grow and eat?
Chris Enroth: 52:22Well, we are working on that one. We thought maybe we need a dedicated entire episode to that one. So I guess if you have any questions or anything to to input about that one, you know, something for us to to help when we do that show here in a couple weeks. So yeah. But but don't worry.
Chris Enroth: 52:42We are working on that particular species for its own stand alone show.
Ken Johnson: 52:48Yeah. That care for that one's a little bit different than than our houseplants. And we'll get into more we'll go down that that pollination rabbit hole too
Chris Enroth: 52:56Yes. Yeah.
Ken Johnson: 52:57For that one.
Chris Enroth: 52:58Ken's chomping at the bit. I can't wait to read read more research papers about fig pollination.
Ken Johnson: 53:04Gotta untangle it all in my head first. Mhmm. Yeah.
Chris Enroth: 53:09But I guess we we can say, like, in terms of how we get more of these plants, there's a few ways to propagate them. If you do have fruit available, well, then you can plant them by seed. You can get seed out of those fruits, and you can plant them, and get new. I I know there's a lot of tissue culture propagation that goes on in, like, a more controlled lab setting. I've even done, leaf cuttings.
Chris Enroth: 53:33So you can take a leaf, stick it in soil, and it will produce roots, but you don't have a leaf bud. You have no opportunity for vegetative growth to take place. So, essentially, you're gonna have a rooted leaf until the leaf dies, and then then there you're done. So, yeah, you do need if you do a cutting, you're gonna need some type of a leaf bud, tissue for that to then continue to grow vegetatively. But I'll say the main way that I've propagated them is air layering.
Chris Enroth: 54:08Have you ever air layered a ficus, Ken?
Ken Johnson: 54:12We did try doing it with a rubber tree. I think it dried out too much, though, to work.
Chris Enroth: 54:20And that is the hard part. So with air layering, you basically create a wound on the plant, you know, very specific wound. I think we cut, like, strips out, or you can, like, cut, like, through it, and then we would douse it with, a rooting hormone. And then we would pack sphagnum moss or pot in soil, and you wrap that in a saran wrap or in plastic film, cling film. And but but the hard part is keeping it watered because then you gotta, like, open up the plastic wrap and you gotta spritz it.
Chris Enroth: 54:51You gotta keep it watered in order for the roots to then initiate in that wound that you created. And I remember doing that and that little that little sphagnum moss ball just falling apart a few times, and I'd unwrap it and try to try to get a little bit of of water. So that it is a a tough part of that that that process. But if you get roots in that moss or in that potting soil, you just cut that puppy right below the wound, and then you have a you got a whole tree. And and that's what we did at down at the the greenhouse in Carmondale's.
Chris Enroth: 55:26We did air layering on all those that that rubber tree that was just growing happy as could be in the blazing Carmondale sun.
Ken Johnson: 55:35You know, that thing about it, I don't know if we use potting or not potting, rooting hormone either. Chicken have been
Chris Enroth: 55:41That helps.
Ken Johnson: 55:41Issue too.
Chris Enroth: 55:44That'll help. I I don't think you have to, but I I know if you can.
Ken Johnson: 55:48Speeds up the process a little bit.
Chris Enroth: 55:51Give those cells a little bit more incentive to switch as a from a leaf stem cell to a rooting cell.
Ken Johnson: 56:00And if you are going to, to propagate your plants, make sure there's no plant plant patent on them so you don't get yourself in trouble because you cannot pat you cannot, whatever, propagate you're not supposed to propagate ones that are patented.
Chris Enroth: 56:15And that's what our lawyer said we had to tell you.
Ken Johnson: 56:22Especially don't try to sell.
Chris Enroth: 56:25No. Yeah. And and you know that we don't have lawyers. We can't afford that. Flinging around in the wind here.
Chris Enroth: 56:34I guess have we covered it all, Ken?
Ken Johnson: 56:37So I think there was there's well, there's three of the National Garden Bureau, three species that they listed that we can just mention that you may see, in the trade. I'm just gonna read what they have. So we got Ficus triangularis. So this one has somewhat triangle shaped leaves on it, so a little bit different look and texture compared to some of the others. So, yeah, it's not as as commonly grown.
Ken Johnson: 57:03It's native to Africa, Southern Africa, about 10 feet tall outdoors in frost free areas, which we are not. It's about eight feet tall if you don't if you don't print it, and there are variegated, types that are available. Ficus umbolata, the umbrella fig. So there's another one that has really big leaves, 12 inches long and wide, on those, native to Western Africa, get 40 feet tall in the wild, typically about four feet in size, indoors. And they say they say this one's got thinner leaves, A lot of other ficus, so it's gonna be more prone to a leaf drop when under stressful conditions or you're changing from indoor to outer.
Ken Johnson: 57:54Ears are getting drier, whatnot. So that may be something to consider if you do find this one somewhere. And then Ficus vaccinoides. This is another ground cover or climbing vine similar to creeping fig. Shiny oval leaves, so it's a little bit different look because they're more shiny, native to Taiwan.
Ken Johnson: 58:16Get more than six feet tall if not pruned or trained. So few others, that they list. I I think there's some others that you may be able to find, but, again, not very common, probably more of a collector, collector level if you're if you're gonna be growing some of these other ones.
Chris Enroth: 58:35Oh, I I didn't I I don't know. I hopefully surprised folks with with how much there is to know about FICUS.
Ken Johnson: 58:46That that's just that sad plant in the corner.
Chris Enroth: 58:49No. I I I will say, you know, in my twenties, I I took my FICUS out to party in my thirties. I left my FICUS home. I went to the party. Now in my forties, I'm staying home with my FICUS and avoiding the party.
Chris Enroth: 59:01So that's that's the that's the new joke. Yep. Staying home with the FICUS. Gotta take care of it.
Ken Johnson: 59:10Here you go. Try that one.
Chris Enroth: 59:12There you go. Let's see if that goes over. Well, that was a lot of great information about a massive genus. 887 species, the year of the ficus according to the National Gardening Bureau. I learned a lot.
Chris Enroth: 59:27Everyone, I hope you learned a lot too. Well, the Good Growing podcast production of University of Illinois Extension edited this week by Ken Johnson. And Ken, thanks for hanging out with me and learning everything there is to know. Well, at least scratching the surface of what we can scratch here, about the genus Ficus.
Ken Johnson: 59:47Yes. Thank you, Heather. They're much more common, than I realized. There's a lot of things that I've seen that were ficus that I just didn't know it. And now, I have to go back and and see if they actually work.
Ken Johnson: 01:00:01Maybe someday.
Chris Enroth: 01:00:02Maybe someday. Yes. The year old stomping grounds down in Florida. Yeah. And and I'll say, National Gardening Bureau, if you are listening, it's unfair to say a national the a plant of the year is ficus when it is, in fact, the genus of the year.
Chris Enroth: 01:00:20We need to alter our our scope here. Help us poor little extension podcaster people out.
Ken Johnson: 01:00:32That's sad. Well, thank you again, and let's do this again next week.
Chris Enroth: 01:00:37Oh, we shall do this again next week. I believe we got a Garden Bite in store for you because we have the everything local conference next week in Springfield. So, yeah, come learn about local food systems, tree fruit systems, production systems, and participate in the Illinois apple cider contest. Ken would love you to do that. So well, listeners, thank you for doing what you do best, and that is listening or if you watched us on YouTube watching.
Chris Enroth: 01:01:04And as always, keep on growing.