Viewing post #648142 by plantladylin

Ken, I know what you mean about the Ficus benjamina dropping their leaves if you even look at them the wrong way. I could move my trees from one side of the screened area to a spot two feet away and they would start shedding leaves like crazy! They are very pretty trees though (as the beauty in Susans photo) and many folks enjoy growing them as houseplants. I do still have a variegated F. benjamina that has been suffering the past few years. It's pot/root bound and not happy at all. I thought about planting it out in the yard and just letting it do it's thing, live or die but still haven't done that yet. I've only kept it around because I purchased it as a tiny little plant from a friends nursery back in the 80's shortly before she passed away; so it has a bit of sentimental value. The photo below is from about eight or ten years ago, I wish it looked so good today.


The Ficus elastica's: http://garden.org/plants/searc... and Fiddle Leaf Fig (Ficus lyrata) get huge down here in Florida as well, some folks grow them as landscape trees but there are many who enjoy them as houseplants even though they grow quickly and need almost constant repotting and pruning too.