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| My Ficus Tree |
The Ficus fills a corner very nicely and helps bridge the space created by the high ceiling. This particular tree was a housewarming gift to my husband and me twenty-nine years ago. It was small then, probably about three years old at the time. That means it is about thirty-two years old now. I can't believe I've had a plant for that long and haven't killed it!
It's pretty remarkable that I've had this tree for so long. When thinking about how I managed to keep this tree happy, healthy, and growing strong all these years it boiled down to five key elements. Follow these tips and you can have a happy, healthy ficus in your home for many years, too.
A Guide for Growing a Ficus Tree
1. Good Light
My Ficus loves living in the corner of my family room where it gets both southern and western light exposure. It has been in this one location for more than ten years. It had started in the northwest corner of my house and that didn't work well at all. The tree told me it was unhappy by dropping lots and lots of leaves. You won't want to move your tree very often, Weeping Fig trees don't like change.
2. Perfect Temperature
There are no heating sources near my Ficus. Our baseboard heat is located on an opposite wall. The room is kept at approximately sixty-five degrees for the majority of the year. Nighttime temperatures can go as low as sixty degrees when I turn the heat down at night in the winter. Keep your Ficus away from drafts.3. Trimming and Grooming
Twice a year I give the tree a good trimming and grooming. I like to take it outside in the fall and spring. First, I give the tree a good shake to loosen any old leaves. Then I trim back the growth of the branches to keep them compact. The tree also gets a shower when I take it outside. I've only repotted my Weeping Fig tree twice in all the years I've owned it. It may be due for another repotting soon, but as long as it is happy as it is I won't disrupt the pot.4. Water Sparingly
I usually water my Ficus tree with room temperature water once every seven to ten days. I read once that the key to watering a Ficus is to only water when it tells you to. That's when the tree puts out a single yellow leaf, as seen in the picture below. I really do use this yellow leaf signal as my watering guide. |
| A Single Yellow Leaf Means Time to Water |
5. Feed Occasionally
Very infrequently I use a water-soluble 10-10-10 fertilizer when watering my Weeping Fig tree, mainly during the spring and summer.These are the five care steps that have kept my Ficus going strong all these years. I feel confident that if you follow this care guide you will be successful, too. Good luck growing your own Ficus tree!
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Enjoy!
I had this gorgeous healthy ficus tree. Then replaced every window in our house, in February, in Wisconsin. We had pushed the plants to the other side of the room, but my poor ficus was never the same. He lost 3/4 of his leaves and I kept him for a couple of years 'til even I had to admit he was pretty much dead.
ReplyDeleteI know exactly what you mean. They definitely let you know when they are not happy with their conditions. I'm very lucky mine has survived so long. Thanks for sharing your experience.
DeleteI have an indoor ficus tree also, it gets southern and western light also. My mother gave this to me as a housewarming gift 13 years ago, and she had already had it for many years. They are very temperamental for sure. I use to take mine out in the spring but it got to big and my son got tired of moving it in and out for me. The last time I brought it back in from spending the summer outside, (under a big oak tree), it measured 13ft tall and 9 feet in diameter, needless to say it got a really big hair cut that year. I wanted to share a few things my mom taught me about this plant. If you will cut it back about 4-6 inches before moving it then it will cut down on the shock of being moved, (starts dropping leaves like crazy). She said to never repot the tree, I had to once because it burst the planter to pieces, the sun makes the plastic pots brittle after years of sun. Now I just wipe the pot down with armorall every now and then. After awhile as you know dirt just gets old and will not drink the water, it will just run right through it without nourishing the plant. So what you do is get a bag of potting soil, get the good stuff, and a metal trowel. You want to carefully remove as much dirt from the pot as you can without disturbing any of the roots, then fill the planter back up with the new dirt. Do not fill the planter any fuller of dirt than it already was. I have done this several times and did not drop one leaf. I was able to remove 6 - 8 inches of the dirt to be replaced.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the story of your tree, Nana and B. It's great to hear from someone who has had their tree for a long time, like me. It starts to feel like it is part of the family, doesn't it? Your tips are great. I'll keep them in mind.
DeleteI've had my Ficus.Tree for 35 years! It's moved with us from Seattle to New Port, RI, then Virginia and the last 20 years in Michigan! My husband (a navy man) would complain every time we moved it!! We are divorced but I have my tree! Lol
ReplyDeleteI love hearing stories from long-term owners of Ficus trees. Thanks for sharing!
DeleteNavy vet here! I LOL'ed at your comment because my plants would move everywhere the Navy said we were going. Each of our last 3 moves we traveled with a car full of plants :)
DeleteMy ficus is 30+ years old. I have repotted it once. It stays outside all summer in NJ and brought inside in late September. I have given it a good trim a few times and it bounces right back.
ReplyDeleteYay! It's great you are having success, too!
DeleteI was given a Ficus and moved it into my home the leafs are green but lost a lot during the move and some of the branches are bare I would like to repot and prune but want to wait until it gets over the moving shock! Does anyone have in tips to share? Thanks!
DeleteAlso some branches broke! Do I trim them?
ReplyDeleteDebbie, please do give your ficus some time to adjust to its new situation. Take the time to assess how like its previous environment the new environment is. You want to be sure you have chosen the right spot or it going forward. Don't freak out while it adjusts. Stick to your normal watering routine. Sometimes we want to over water when our plant is in stress. Do trim any broken branches. You can do that now, but don't do a big prun when the tree is in stress. Please let me know how it goes.
DeleteYes, go ahead and trim any broken branches.
ReplyDeleteHi, I got my ficus tree from my office in NYC, we moved from Midtown to Downtown and they didn’t want to take the tree so I took him home to NJ, that was 13 years ago, he is the main topic of conversations in my house because he is huge! I trimmed the tree after every summer when he comes in the house, I also put him in a corner with 2 windows I tell him to hold on Spring is coming soon so he could go on the porch again. It is so heavy to carry outside, but thank God my husband loves him too so he doesn’t complain when we need to him. I repotted him 3 times in 13 years, and one time birds made a nest on the tree, we had to be really quiet every time we opened the front door, the birds grew and flew away🙂 He is a happy tree
ReplyDeleteMy ficus is so big that I have begun to dislike it. I may try to prune it and see if it survives. One thing that has happened to mine is what I would call "girdling." It's rootbound and too big to repot. Any suggestions?
ReplyDelete