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Re: Ficus repens


>
>Today I bought a little ivy-looking thing that caught my eye.  I've never
>seen anything like it, and couldn't find it in any of my books.  The woman
>at the garden shop told me it was called a ficus repens, although she
>didn't look so sure.  It looks like a tiny ivy with variegated leaves less
>than a centimeter wide.  Its leaves are green in the center, and
>cream-colored around the edges.  It looks like it wants to climb or be
>trained.
>
>In one of my books I found a ficus called 'creeping fig' that it sort of
>looks like, only with aforementioned two-tone leaves.  This book mentions
>that it needs lots and lots of humidity and medium to bright light and a
>warm location.
>
>Anyone have a clue about:
>Light?
>Water?
>Feeding?
>Propagation?  (I owe a few people clippings and this plant is gorgeous)
>Temperature?
>Humidity?
>
>Most appreciative of anyone who can help me keep this little beauty alive.
>


There are several cultivars of creeping fig.  Some need more humidity than
others.  I don't know for sure what conditions the varigated one needs.  I
have the "Oakleaf" variety that has tiny (up to about a cm wide), lobed
leaves, and it pretty much needs warm, humid, conditions.  It is a fabulous
terrarium plant.  It is a breeze to propagate.  It forms little roots as it
"walks" around the terrarium.  Just clip a piece off and lay it on the soil
and it roots in and keeps going.  As it is in a terrarium, I feed it
sparingly with a timed release fertilizer.  Actually, I put the fertilizer
in to feed the Sinningias, and the fig likes it.  Water:  don't ever let it
dry out or the ends will die back.  It doesn't need a lot of light.  I keep
mine about six feet from a window, but the window is south facing.  There
are other, taller plants, between it and the window, though.

I have seen people growing the species, the one with a bit larger leaves,
maybe 1.5cm wide, in hanging baskets in their houses.  They don't let them
get real dry, and mist occasionally, but the plants were still alive even
in the winter in Illinois (furnace running, humidity down).

If I wasn't sure what that variety needed, I would clip a little piece off,
anyway, and put it in a terrarium just in case!

Carie Nixon
Illinois, Zone 5

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Carie Nixon                                        //
c-nixon2@uiuc.edu                            @ @
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