Back in 2020 I bought 2 Ginseng Ficuses or Microcarpa however you prefer to call them. When they arrived both the ficuses were quite unremarkable really, but they were alive and were in coconut coir where I presume is where they were placed initially to root. The total cost of the initial purchase was £16.99 so about £8.50 each. This in itself was something that initially annoyed me, because they were quite small. Though I knew what I was getting, I always got disappointed because the original plants were though well rooted quite beat up whilst being delivered to me. They were also delivered in winter, and I was happy they arrived alive, though most had lost all leaves.

The initial part was recovery - I let them start leafing up again and fertilised them and kept an eye out as to when they looked like they were nice and healthy. Despite their small size, I really didn’t like the fact that they had rooted in coconut coir, nothing against coconut coir, as it is quite useful and still use it from time to time, but I felt I could do better by moving them to a bigger pot and allowing them time to grow.

The rest was easy - uppot them in 15cm pots and try to grow them more in size and vigour with a generous supply of fertilising and constant daily watering. Cuttings from these two plants have served me well by rooting and developing further ficuses in the 2 years that I have had them. The roots however didn’t take no matter how many times I tried. They generally just rotted away.

I will focus on one of the Ficuses. The one I call the dancing Ficus. Following careful clipping of it, I wired one of the branches down, in an almost sweeping motion. I wanted to encourage aerial roots so I kept it touching the soil and surrounding it by moss. But that didn’t take, even after a year. Disappointed with that, I used the form that it had to let it grow in a non conventional way. With Ginseng Ficuses the focus can be the ginger-like roots or the shapes you get to bend the trunk growth on top.

To me it resembled that of a dancing lady. My partner finds this one of the better ones and I am unsure as to why. For her I have not changed the look that this ficus has and have tried to create more interest by further developing the structure but not sacrificing the downward sweeping branch that I have created. The image that I am attaching here is one that shows the progress following defoliation and clipping back to allow further back-budding on the branches. I am also focusing on developing the structure on the mid trunk and apex. The branches need to be brought further back and to develop further. It looks quite interesting when leaved, but on further inspection you can see the faults in it. The roots have grown really well in its pot and they are creating an interesting structure as far as I can tell. However, I will not be up-potting it any time soon. I aim to stress the tree a bit to see how it will react, whether the leaves will grow smaller, or perhaps whether that forces any aerial roots to develop from any of the branches. Currently there is still space for the roots to go. So I want to see how it will react when I continue growing it intensely in the same pot.

It has definitely grown beyond the 9cm pot that it originally came and though it has been cut back multiple times, it seems that it is only getting stronger.

The image below shows you the difficulties I am struggling with whilst keeping them indoors. You can see the hardness of the water that we have, with the limescale that forms on everything. It also shows that instead of watering with neutral pH the most likely pH for my water, though I have not tested it yet, is probably more on the alkaline site.

The winters as they are do not encourage me to go out and collect rain water to bring in, although when it comes to my outdoor plants I do use rain water as much as possible. They seem to be growing better themselves.

Here is the current state of the Dancing Ficus

One year has passed and the tree was potted up and a small Buddha figurine was placed alongside it and the branches were bent down to surround it. I personally like it very much though it makes the styling of it quite challenging.

Here is Jan 2024