How to Grow and Care for Weeping Fig Plants (Ficus benjamina)

Ficus benjamina

With its ability to grow tall and the traditional trunk and canopy shape, it’s no wonder the weeping fig (Ficus benjamina) is a valued houseplant – with one significant caveat.

Part of what makes the weeping fig so appealing, beyond its elegant shape and cascading habit, is its versatility.

You can find specimens with braided or twisted stems, and plants that grow to heights ranging from just a few feet tall at maturity to 10 feet or more.

The leaves can be light or dark green, and even variegated. Some even have a more upright growth habit.

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What all varieties have in common is that they can be a bit finicky. They have a reputation of dropping their leaves when they are stressed.

But that shouldn’t scare you away. Once you learn how to treat these particular plants to the conditions they prefer, you’ll have a spectacular display.

Here’s what we’ll talk about to help you achieve weeping fig perfection:

F. benjamina is one of the hundreds of species in the Ficus genus, a group that includes some spectacular plants, ranging from the dramatic, Jurassic-looking fiddle-leaf fig to the elegant weeping fig, with its petite leaves.

It’s native to Australia, India, China, southeast Asia, and parts of the southwestern Pacific such as French Polynesia and Vanuatu.

It has been introduced in warm, tropical areas like Hawaii and has become invasive in certain regions including Cuba, parts of Asia, and the Pacific Islands of Samoa and Tonga.

You can easily see where the common name weeping fig comes from since the tree has a gracefully weeping appearance.

It’s also referred to by the common name benjamin fig.

In its native habitat, F. benjamina has evolved alongside parasitic wasps that do all of the pollinating.

These wasps don’t exist outside of the same warm, tropical areas where the plant grows native, with just a few exceptions.

If you keep your weeping fig outdoors outside of its native range, don’t expect it to produce viable seeds. It may form bright red fruits containing sterile seeds.

One of the so-called strangler figs, F. benjamina starts its life in the wild in the branches of another tree.

As it matures, it sends down long aerial roots that wrap around the host tree and eventually reach down to the soil.

These roots grow larger and larger, and eventually act like trunks for the plant. The original host tree is often strangled to death, and as it dies back, the new ficus “trunks” take over.

How to Grow

Weeping figs show their stress by dropping foliage.

Leaf drop is usually driven by a change in the environment, so once you find a happy place for your plant, try not to change its growing conditions.

If you do move your plant or you do need to change its growing conditions, try to do so as slowly as possible.

Learn more about leaf drop in ficus plants here.

Temperature

Ideally, the temperature should be around 75 to 85°F during the day and 60 to 75°F at night.

This species can tolerate a temperature range that’s a bit wider than this, but guess what happens if the temps suddenly drop too low or climb too high? Yep, it will lose some leaves.

Light

Place yours in an area that receives lots of bright, indirect sunlight. Six to eight hours of filtered sunlight per day is just right.

Any direct sun will, at best, result in leaf drop. And at worst, it could scorch or kill your plant.

With too little light, growth will be thin and stunted, and the leaves will be paler than they would be otherwise. Oh yeah, and the leaves might drop in protest.

Soil

Any potting soil that’s formulated for houseplants will do.

I like to combine equal parts orchid potting medium with a water retentive mix such as Burpee’s Premium Organic Potting Mix, which contains coconut coir to aid with water retention.

Burpee Premium Organic Potting Mix

You can grab a nine-quart bag from Burpee.

Water

These plants need regular watering. Allow the top two inches of the soil to dry out in between watering, except during the winter, when you can allow it to dry out by another inch.

Err on the side of slightly too dry rather than too wet if you aren’t sure exactly how much water to provide. F. benjamina won’t survive if it has roots that are constantly wet.

As with many houseplants, you should avoid watering with chlorinated or softened water.

Wipe off the white spots with a solution of one part white vinegar mixed with 10 parts water. You should always water your houseplant at the soil level rather than on the foliage.

Fertilizer

Because of its resistance to change, slow-release fertilizer is the best option for F. benjamina.

Choose a product that is formulated for houseplants and apply in the spring, following the manufacturer’s directions.

Cultivars to Select

Most of the time, major retailers simply sell this plant under the name Benjamin ficus or weeping fig without any cultivar noted.

Benjamin Ficus with Braided Trunk

For instance, you can find a species plant in a three-gallon pot with a braided trunk available from Fast Growing Trees.

But specialty retailers and nurseries often carry unique and attractive cultivars featuring variegated foliage, dwarf sizes, and extremely compact growing habits.

In the case of weeping figs, “compact growth habit” refers to how tightly packed the leaves are, not the size of the plant.

Some are ideal for bonsai, while others are better off growing in a suitable climate outdoors.

Speaking of which, if you wish to grow yours outside, check out our guide to growing weeping figs outdoors.

Bushy King

‘Bushy King’ has leaves with yellow margins and a compact, dense habit. The leaves are more petite than those of the species plant.

Indoors, it stays under six feet tall, but outdoors this cultivar can grow 14 feet tall and wide in Zones 9 to 11.

This variety is the result of a ‘Golden King’ mutation.

Bushy Prince

As is often the case with any lesser royal – at least where plants are concerned –  ‘Bushy Prince’ is more diminutive than its relative ‘Bushy King.’

This variety generally stays under 12 feet tall and eight feet wide at maturity if grown outside, but closer to six feet tall and four feet wide indoors.

The leaves are solid, glossy, medium green, and proportionally smaller than those of other types.

De Gantel

‘De Gantel’ is a beauty with heavily variegated gray-green leaves with creamy white accents.

It rarely grows more than five feet tall and has a somewhat columnar growth habit, spreading about two and a half feet wide.

Exotica

This cultivar has lighter foliage than most others, and its weeping growth habit is exaggerated. But what makes it truly special is the way that each leaf twists slightly.

‘Exotica’ has a rounded shape, growing up to nine feet tall and wide, and twice that outdoors.

This cultivar is slightly more frost tender than most, and should only be grown outdoors year-round in Zones 10 and 11.

Golden King

The foliage on ‘Golden King’ is striking. The leaves are variegated with distinct light green margins and medium green midribs.

Ideal if you have a limited amount of space, this type only reaches four feet tall and two feet wide.

Golden Monique

Combine the size of the plant and the narrow, rippling leaves of ‘Monique’ with the golden and green coloring of ‘Reginald’ and you have ‘Golden Monique.’

Judith

‘Judith’ has petite leaves that are distinctly variegated, with medium green and creamy yellow splotches.

This one doesn’t drop its leaves as readily or as heavily as many others, as an added bonus.

It’s a standard-sized weeping fig, so expect a mature height of about six feet or so indoors.

Midnight

A mutation of ‘Exotica,’ ‘Midnight’ has dark green leaves, but otherwise it looks like its parent, with a similar height and spread of nine feet tall and wide, and double that outdoors.

It’s extremely resistant to leaf drop, making it an excellent option for benjamin fig beginners.

Monique

‘Monique’ features deep green leaves that are more narrow than those of most other cultivars and the margins feature heavy rippling, with light and dark green variation.

‘Monique’ is less prone to leaf drop than many other types, and it grows well outdoors in Zones 10 to 11. This cultivar will reach a mature height of four to five feet tall when grown indoors.

Reginald

‘Reginald’ was initially a happy accident, emerging after a grower named Reginald Deroose discovered a mutation on an ‘Exotica’ plant in Belgium, in 1986.

With its variegated leaves, featuring bright yellow gold mixed with dark green mid-veins, coupled with an extremely heavy weeping growth habit.

Starlight

‘Starlight’ shines bright with its vibrant yellow and green variegated leaves.

In bright, indirect light, the leaves may be primarily yellow with splotches of green. It has an especially elegant weeping habit, and stays under five feet tall and four feet wide.

This cultivar grows well outdoors in Zones 9 to 11 as a shrub or small tree that will stay under 12 feet tall.

Too Little

‘Too Little’ is an adorable dwarf cultivar that is incredibly popular in the bonsai world.

The leaves, stems, and trunk are all proportionally tiny, so the tree appears to be a completely miniaturized version of the standard species.

Wasana

This cultivar is often used to create bonsai as well. The leaves are extremely small and variegated, with white margins.

‘Wasana’ plants stay under a few feet tall naturally, but of course, they can be limited further by growing in a bonsai container.

Wintergreen

‘Wintergreen’ has deep, dark, glossy green leaves.

Maintenance

Weeping figs may actually drop their leaves in the winter, despite being classified as evergreens.

They don’t typically drop all of their leaves – it’s usually more of a leaf-thinning situation instead.

When grown year-round outdoors in warmer regions, weeping figs can handle quite a bit of pruning, but those grown indoors are another matter altogether.

You can absolutely trim back an unruly plant and remove any leggy, dead, or diseased branches, but be sure to do it slowly.

Prioritize removing any diseased or dead parts first, and then you can remove up to 10 percent of the remaining branches at a time.

Allow the tree to recover for at least six months before pruning again.

Ideally, all pruning should be done in the fall or winter, but you should remove diseased material quickly whenever it pops up.

Make your cuts using a clean, sharp pair of pruners and snip near a leaf node.

If any aerial roots form, feel free to prune these away.

Learn more about pruning ficus trees here.

You should repot your plant when it becomes rootbound to the point where you can see roots circling the surface of the soil or coming out of the drainage hole.

At that point, remove it from the pot, brush away as much of the soil as possible, and repot it in a container that’s one or two inches larger than the current one.

You’ll need to reverse this process in the fall when you bring the plant back indoors.

Propagation

There are a few ways to propagate this tree. You can purchase seeds or a sapling, take cuttings, or even use air layering.

It is a reliable reproducer, so you can’t go wrong with any of these methods, though seeds have an extremely low germination rate and this method is not recommended.

From Cuttings

Cuttings can be taken during spring, summer, or fall. Before you take your cutting, prepare the container that you will place it in.

Fill a six-inch container that has at least one drainage hole with a water-retentive potting medium, and poke a hole in the center with a pencil or chopstick. You’ll need one pot for each cutting.

To take a cutting, use a clean, sharp pair of pruners or secateurs. Snip a six-inch cutting with at least two leaves from the end of a branch.

Remove all but two of the leaves at the tip of the cutting.

If you take multiple cuttings, set them in a glass of water until you’re ready to plant.

Dip the end of each cutting in rooting hormone powder or gel and place each about a third of the way deep into the potting medium.

Bonide Bontone II Rooting Powder

If you don’t already have some on hand, you can find Bonide Bontone II available at Arbico Organics.

Water the soil well and cover the cutting with a clear plastic bag. Place a stick or other support in the container to prop up the bag so it doesn’t touch the cutting.

Place the container or containers somewhere warm (between 65 and 75°F) where they will receive bright, indirect light. Each day, lift the plastic and lightly mist the plant.

Then, stick your finger in the soil to see if the top half-inch has dried out. If it has, add more water to keep it moist.

Within a few weeks, your cuttings should form roots. Give one a very gentle tug to see if it resists. If it does, this indicates the development of a healthy root system.

Remove the plastic and continue caring for your plant as described below.

Get more tips on propagating from stem cuttings here.

Air Layering

While this method is less reliable than taking cuttings, you will typically end up with larger transplants more quickly than you would with cuttings.

Layering should be done in the spring, when the plant is actively growing.

Select a branch that is about as thick as a pencil or chopstick and at least a foot long. Choose a layering site two to three inches from the branch tip that’s about six inches long.

Remove any leaves from this section.

Soak a handful of sphagnum moss in lukewarm water.

Use a clean, sharp knife to cut about a third of the way through the branch. Don’t cut around the entire branch, just make the cut on one side.

You want to cut through the bark and green cambium layer to reach the light-colored wood inside.

Pack the moistened sphagnum moss all around the part of the branch where you made the cut.

Secure the moss in place with plastic wrap. Seal the lower end of the wrap that’s closest to the joint with tape.

After about a month, you should see roots forming in the moss. When the roots are at least two inches long, carefully remove the plastic and moss.

Cut the branch away from the parent plant right below where the roots are emerging from the air layered section.

Plant the rooted section in its own container as you would any other transplant, following the instructions outlined below.

Transplanting

I’m going to warn you ahead of time so you don’t panic: when you move your plant from its nursery container to a new pot, it will probably drop some leaves.

Water the plant thoroughly the day before you intend to transplant it.

Select a container that is an inch or two larger than the existing pot.

Gently press the sides of the nursery container to loosen the root ball, and gently pull the plant out.

Because F. benjamina prefers to be a little bit rootbound, you might find you need to use a sharp pair of scissors to cut down one side of the container to free the root ball.

Loosen the root ball as much as possible. You want to encourage the roots to grow down and out rather than tangling up around themselves.

Pests and Disease

While leaf drop as a result of changing environmental conditions is far more likely to cause problems for your plant than any other issue, you might also bump up against a few insects.

Disease pathogens come to call even less often, but it’s still a good idea to be aware of the potential culprits.

Pests

Indoor pests lack natural predators, which allows them to spread pretty much unchecked. 

What’s one of the most common symptoms of a pest infestation? I’ll give you one guess…

If you said dropping leaves, you win! There are a few common pests that you’ll see on indoor plants.

Aphids

A large aphid infestation can cause leaf drop and yellow stippling on the leaves.

You will most commonly see them on the green growing tips, but they can feed anywhere.

Spraying regularly with neem oil is a standard method for dealing with these pests.

Because they’re so common, you should be sure to learn how to spot and eliminate these pests if you haven’t already.

Our article on how to deal with aphids provides helpful information to guide you through the process.

Mealybugs

Mealybugs, insects in the family Pseudococcidae, are another common houseplant pest. They will feed on ficus plants, using their piercing mouthparts to draw sap out of the tree.

When they congregate in groups, these little wingless insects are covered in a waxy coating that makes them look more like some type of fungal disease than a pest infestation.

Learn more about identifying and dealing with mealybugs here.

Scale

Scale insects appear as little brown or black lumps on the leaves, stems, or trunk.

You can remove them by wiping with a cotton swab that has been dunked in a bit of rubbing alcohol.

It’s a little tedious, and you will need to do it again every few days over the course of a few weeks, but it’s effective.

For more tips, check out our guide to scale.

Spider Mites

Spider mites love dry conditions, and it just so happens that home interiors tend to be drier than the outdoors.

These tiny spider relatives are sapsuckers and they leave behind extremely fine webbing – which is usually what will first tip you off to an infestation.

The red spider mite (Tetranychus spp.) is the most common. Learn more about how to deal with these teeny-tiny pests in our guide.

Disease

F. benjamina is rarely troubled by disease. Rotting roots are really the only issue you need to watch for.

Root Rot

Root rot can be caused by two problems. The first is standing water around the roots, and the second is disease.

More specifically, root rot is caused by the fungi Rhizoctonia solani and Fusarium oxysporum. Both of these species thrive in oversaturated soil – so in other words, don’t overwater your ficus!

Because it’s impossible to tell whether root rot is the result of a fungus or whether the roots are simply drowning in too much water, you’ll need to treat for both probable causes.

First, remove the plant from the pot and rinse away all of the soil. Trim away any mushy or black roots.

Next, treat the roots with a biofungicide. Mycostop is an excellent option that’s very effective. Mix it with water according to the manufacturer’s directions and spray the roots.

Wipe the container clean and sanitize it with a 1:10 mixture of bleach and water (one part bleach to nine parts water). Fill it with fresh potting soil.

Repot the plant, and wait two weeks before treating the soil with the same biofungicide, following the manufacturer’s directions. Treat one more time two weeks later.

Mycostop Biofungicide

Pick up Mycostop in five- or 25-gram packets at Arbico Organics.

Find our detailed guide on preventing and treating root rot here.

Find Success with Weeping Figs

Weeping figs have a bad reputation among some growers.

They’re known for dropping their leaves at the slightest provocation – and many have resorted to placing artificial ones in their homes to avoid unnecessary cleanup.

Hopefully this guide has put you on the road to success with this elegant houseplant. Knowing what to watch for, and what to avoid, goes a long way towards making your plant happy.

Are you growing a weeping fig? If so, have you had any trouble with leaf drop? What caused it? Let us know in the comments below so we can share our experiences!

If you’d like to add a few more ficus plants to your collection, you might be interested in some of our other guides next:

• How to Grow and Care for Rubber Tree (Ficus elastica)
• How to Grow and Care for Ginseng Ficus
• How to Grow and Care for Banana Leaf Figs