The Giant Ficus

Ficus is actually a genus name for the whole entire fig family. What kind of ficus do I have? The rescued kind. It looks like every other Ficus you see in the houseplant area of Home Depot.

This was another rescue plant from a zoo keeper at work back in the winter of 2005. From what I remember, this tree had belonged to her grandmother, and she was trying to keep it alive, but their house just wasn't getting enough light. She had heard about the African Violet that I saved, and I had taken some other plants over the years, so she approached me.

She said it was about 5 feet tall, and since we had just bought a condo with a 2-story living room and tons of windows, I knew it would fit.

We loaded the tree in my Volvo and I took it home. When it was finally in the living room, my boyfriend looked at it and asked me what the hell it was....It looked bad. Really bad.

From one side, it was covered in leaves, so much so, that the main branches had bent over and were growing toward the ground. The other side? Completely dead...really dead.

First thing I did was water and fertilize it. Next step - trim the hell out of it. I took off the first two feet of branches on the trunk, cut off the branches that were growing back down, trimmed the whole front side, and carefully cut all the leafless branches that were actually dead. It look like a badly shorn sheep with a couple of legs missing, but I was determined.

When people came over they always commented, "Nice tree", in the most sarcastic tones they could muster...it looked like crap. This video is the only proof of how crappy it was - look behind the cat...

The crazy thing is that every Ficus I have ever had, has dropped it's leaves in protest every time you did something wrong. This Ficus barely ever does. Maybe 6 leaves a years, it's really weird. So, soon enough, it started growing new leaves, and tiny branches sprouted out of the dead side.

I took a few years, but now it looks almost perfect. There is still a small thin area, but unless you are looking for it, you don't notice. It is way over 7' tall now, and I trim it down about twice a year. It's one damn happy Ficus.