Roots that swell at the crown, smallish evergreen leaves, and aerial roots that drift downwards whenever the air is humid: ficus is the tree beginners are pointed towards, and the easiest of all to keep alive. Water only when the soil has dried out, and one plant can last decades.
| Name | Ficus species |
|---|---|
| Family | Moraceae (mulberry family) |
| Type | easy bonsai, indoor plant |
| Height | 8 to 32 inches (20 to 80 cm) |
| Soil | bonsai plant mix, well drained |
| Exposure | lots of indirect light |
| Foliage | evergreen |
| Watering | moderate |
Care is threefold: water when dry, repot every 2-3 years, and prune often.
Watering is essential. The key is to only water when the soil is dry. That way, you’re sure to avoid root rot.
In winter your bonsai will need much less water, perhaps only once a fortnight. In summer, however, it gets thirstier: you might have to water twice a week.
The most important care you can give your bonsai ficus is to repot it when needed. Every two or three years, repot your ficus bonsai to give it fresh soil nutrients and aerate/thin the root clump.
Trimming off long shoots is the way to keep your ficus bonsai in shape. Every time you cut the tip off a branch, at least two new branches will sprout out from below. A good rule of thumb to prune well is to snip the tip off every time a branch has 5 or 6 leaves already.
The bonsai shown here is trimmed according to an ancient Japanese pruning technique called ‘Niwaki‘, or cloud pruning.
Apart from thrips and, occasionally, scale insects, you won’t ever get any pests on your bonsai ficus.
Almost any ficus can be trained as a bonsai, but leaf size, trunk and root character decide what sort of tree you will end up with. Here is how the species most often sold compare.
| Ficus | Leaves and trunk | Bonsai size it suits | Best known for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ficus ginseng | Lush, thick roots; usually grafted, with a small stump | Small, beginner bonsai | The most common ficus bonsai, hard to kill |
| Ficus microcarpa | Smallish leaves, beautiful bark, roots swelling at the crown | Small to medium | Varieties such as ‘Green island’ and ‘Tiger bark’; air roots |
| Ficus retusa | Smallish leaves, winding trunk that shapes easily | Mid-sized | The bonsai you see in hotels and lobbies |
| Ficus benjamina | Slightly larger leaves; trunks that can be braided | Medium to larger | Braided trunks, and the small-leaved ‘Nastaja’ |
| Other ficus species | Very variable, from Ficus thonningii to the common fig | Any, including large specimens | Hundreds of species, almost all suitable |
Start with ficus ginseng if this is your first bonsai, and move on to the others once pruning feels natural.
The most common ficus bonsai is, without a doubt, Ficus ginseng. The lush, thick roots are fascinating to look at! Usually, ficus ginseng are grafted. You can tell because there’s a small stump with new branches growing out of it.
It’s an easy bonsai to care for since it doesn’t die very easily.
Apart from this perfect beginner bonsai, it’s also possible to grow ficus bonsai from other species as well:
The “small-fruited fig” has roots that swell at the crown. Nurseries uproot them a bit and plant them higher up to showcase these thick roots.
Beautiful bark on all varieties. In time, the whole bonsai takes on a convoluted, attractive look, especially when air roots start forming.
Quite a few varieties are available:
Ficus retusa is often selected to grow mid-sized bonsai. In hotels and lobbies, this is the variety you’ll find.
It grows trunks that can be easily shaped.
The slightly larger leaves of Ficus benjamina mean that this variety is also best for larger bonsai. In the wild it can grow dozens of feet high (several meters).
In particular, this species is great to experiment with braiding trunks. Braided ficus trunks definitely have a surprising appeal!
Rare and elegant is the Ficus benjamina ‘Nastaja’ (shown here): a bundle of trunks is wrapped in burlap, and it grows into a beautiful small-leaved weeping fig bonsai. Watch out because it doesn’t like staying dry for too long.
There are hundreds of ficus species and almost all of them can be grown as bonsai. Shown here is a 40 year-old Ficus thonningii.
It’s extremely rare to see any fruit on a ficus bonsai, but it can happen. The Ficus microcarpa is known to have tiny fruits like figs, no bigger than a fingernail. They’re rarely fertile, though, since each species depends on a single specific wasp species for pollination.
Don’t wait for blossom on a ficus bonsai: the flowers sit hidden inside the little fig itself, which is why none are ever visible.
Figs typically form in the leaf axils of current-season shoots, so repeated tip pruning often removes developing fruit, though it does not guarantee that a ficus bonsai will never fruit.
Ficus microcarpa figs ripen from green through red to purplish-black, though indoor specimens seldom fruit; if yours does, a tray under the pot catches fallen fruit before it is trodden into flooring.
There are three ways to thicken the trunks of a ficus bonsai and make it more interesting.
