Wide range of foliage shapes and sizes, easy to grow and long-lasting.
Ficus, some well-known ones would be, elastica the traditional rubber plant, benjamina the weeping fig with small leaves, pumila a small creeping plant and lyrata the fantastic fiddle leaf fig.
Habit
A wide range of shapes and sizes.
Slow growing, they can be trained or trimmed into shape.
Temperature
They are very adaptable, happy at room temperature but will also survive lower temperatures.
Watering
In warm conditions, especially through the summer water often but allow them to dry out between each watering. In a cool room and during the winter you can allow the compost to dry out for long periods before watering.
Nearly all ficus like to be root bound and only need repotting when the pot is full of roots and only into a slightly bigger pot.
Positon
Happy in the sun, they might stand light shade but the plant will lean towards the light.
In a draughty or very dry atmosphere, ficus Benjamina can drop its leaves.
Very tough, they make great specimen plants.
Very few bad habits, not happy in the shade, they can be expensive to buy.
