I got a call yesterday morning from a guy asking if I had any "large" ficus trees. He actually (specifically) wanted a 6-8' Fiddle Leaf Ficus. His company was renovating a fancy-smancy sorority house on the MSU campus and he wanted a large tree for their "parlor". I explained that I had only my 25 yr. old "mother" Fiddle Leaf that was not for sale but I did have a Banana Leaf Ficus that was 7' tall, and though was my personal plant, I would be willing to sell it. I really didn't want to sell the plant (I had grown it from a 12" cutting) so I put what I thought was a ridiculous price on her, $90. There was a silence, so I thought to myself: "That will scare him off for sure". He said: "Did you say $90? I priced one for sale in Jackson, MS (125 miles away) and the nursery was asking $300". Oh, oh. I messed up. "Can you deliver it to the sorority house for an extra $20 and do it today? Moving-in-day is tomorrow."

I hope the ladies in Delta Delta Delta Sorority take good care of my tree. I left my card with the plant so they can call me if they need my help in the future.

Something like that happened to me, though not that profitable :p Two weeks ago I divided my bearded irises that I had for only two years. From 7 original ones I got 50 divisions. I put them online for sale (kept 5 to myself), but didn't really think anyone would go for it, until a friend of mine tagged his mom to see the message on facebook. Within 10 minutes I sold all of them to her for 50 euros xD

There you go, Lee-Roy. You just never know.

Way to go Ken! I don't see banana leaf ficus for sale very often. When googling I found a few on-line sites that carry it, listed as follows:

Logees - 4" pot, $16.95
Stokes Tropicals - 10" pot, $29.95
Houston Interior Plants - 14" pot, $99.00

The great thing about the Banana Leaf (and the Fiddle Leaf for that matter) is that unlike the Benjamina, they don't drop their leaves and they don't grow lanky-tall. The Banana Leaf is really a wonderful houseplant because, though it is a tree like her cousins the Fiddle Leaf and the Rubber Tree, the Banana does not grow very fast. My Fiddles will grow 1-2' each and every year but the Banana only 6-10" on average. All these trees growth is of course dependent on light, fertilizer, and water.

I know, I typically underprice everything. The story of my life.

A Houston Interior 7' plant is $249 and they don't ship. Knowing what shipping costs (I ship over 300 boxes of plants every year), it will ship for $50-$75 extra and almost all plant sellers would have to charge to build a box for this plant. Figure on $350 for the same size plant I sold.

I have one large banana leaf ficus in a pot that I bought in 2008 and I plan to put it in the ground eventually. When we bought this house last year I found another banana leaf ficus growing in the back yard next to a pine tree and palmettos. I'd love to try to relocate that one at some point but it's big and I have a feeling my husband is not going to want to dig it out. We had tree trimmers here last month, thinning out all the oaks and removing a few pine trees; they topped the pine next to the Ficus but I wouldn't let them take it all the way down because of a huge staghorn fern attached to it. There's also a bunch of awful Syngonium growing up that pine and I plan to get a ladder out there soon to try and rip it all off before it takes over and kills the big staghorn!

I have never had one in the ground. They won't survive our winters. In fact, I opted to leave my largest Banana Leaf out last winter simply because I did not want to bring in such a large tree. It did not take preference above all my other plants. It was killed by the cold. I have to do this occasionally, and though I hate to lose plants, well, sometimes drastic measures are necessary.

This makes me appreciate being in NYC, which is mostly concrete, brick and glass. But there is a wholesale/retail flower and plant market centrally located where there are a dozen or more shops that sell indoor and outdoor plant species. The indoor tropicals are primarily grow in FL nurseries and shipped north weekly. It means I have access to virtually all commonly grown species and in a variety of sizes year round. For what its' worth, 6-foot Lyratas are available for $130 and 6-7 foot Alii's are sold at $135.

Interesting, Will. I don't feel so bad about the $90, now. Unfortunately, she was growing in a nice, heavy porcelain, 14" pot, which cost me $20 (wholesale). So my plant went for $70, or half price. Oh well. I certainly won't lose sleep over it.

WillC said: For what its' worth, 6-foot Lyratas are available for $130 and 6-7 foot Alii's are sold at $135.

Oh my goodness, that is expensive!! Our Home Depot's sometimes have 4 foot Ficus Lyrata selling for maybe $12.95 or so and they grow fast!! I haven't seen the Alii for sale in awhile ... or else I just haven't noticed them.

I still have never seen either one for sale in any of our big-box stores. Don't have a clue why.

It seems to be off and on here; most of the tropical plants at Home Depot, Walmart and Lowes come from plant nurseries in South Florida and I'll see particular plants (like the F. Lyrata) in the garden centers for a year or so and then a few years will go by and no one will have that particular plant. I guess the nurseries decide what they think is going to be popular and grow thousands of them for a couple of years and then change to something different.

Yep, that's the likely story. When I purchase mature orchids (from a grower/hybridizer in Hawaii), and want to purchase them again, perhaps 3-6 mo. later, they never have any. I asked when would they have more. The answer has always been 5-8 yrs., if at all. They want to keep varieties fairly hard-to-find and the last thing any of the growers want to do is to flood the market with them. That's seems to be the business model for them all.

I would have guessed $195.99. Your tree looks amazing. I don't know how you gave it up. I don't think I could have done it. I get attached to my plants. Can you share what you have for sale, Ken? If not here, please do let me know when you get around to it.

So, will you try growing something completely different now or try to replace it?

I've tried replacing plants after I had to let them go (moving). I had so much trouble finding the replacements, that I gave in and tried new plants I'd never owned before..and now I'm even happier with them! Who knew...

I air-layer the three ficus that I grow, Fiddle Leaf, Banana Leaf, and Rubber Tree. I mainly do this to control their size. I moved one of those air-layered Banana Leaf Ficus into the solarium. It is only about 3' tall but it'll do nicely. I put it on a 30" stand. My wife and I enjoy watching these small trees grow big and strong. In the fall, I will have to bring my 25 yr. old "Mother" Fiddle Leaf Ficus inside, so she'll have a prominent place in the solarium during the fall and winter months. She will be 7- tall. I will also bring in a handful of blooming plumeria trees. I found that I could keep those plumeria blooming through Christmas before they took a break and went dormant for 4-8 weeks. Before the solarium was built, keeping plumeria in bloom in the fall and winter months was literally impossible.

I never am short of plants.

@lauriebasler Here's a link to Ken's site so you can view some of the lovely plants he sells: http://www.tropicalplantsandmo...

... and if you scroll down this page you can read recommendations from garden.org members who've been customers: Tropical Plants & More

Thank you so much Lin. This is especially exciting, for my reluctant plant personality. Killing a plant is just so unpleasant for me. Having so much background on a plant you care for is such huge plus, I cannot wait to try something. The website is very impressive. Thanks again.

You are very welcome!