Loads of houseplants are simple to develop, even when you’re simply beginning out in your journey as a plant mother or father. Low-maintenance varieties like spider vegetation, pothos, ZZ plant, and aloe vera can face up to the occasional misstep, tolerate a variety of circumstances, and survive occasional (or frequent) neglect.
Then there are the finicky, high-maintenance divas of the houseplant world: your light-hogging chicken of paradise, moisture-craving Boston fern, and colourful crotons, which have a behavior of dropping these rainbow-hued leaves when you a lot as sneeze of their path.
One other houseplant that is infamous for shedding its foliage with out warning? The luxurious, stately fiddle-leaf fig, which may go from being the star of your plant assortment to an outsized twig seemingly in a single day.
Why Fiddle Leaf Fig Is Not a Newbie-Degree Houseplant
The Spruce / Adelyn Duchala
With its giant, lyre-shaped leaves and talent to develop as much as 10 toes tall indoors, it is pure for houseplant newbies to wish to attempt rising this lovely, tropical tree.
Native to the rainforests of central and western Africa, fiddle leaf figs developed to thrive in heat, humid circumstances with very well-drained soil and much (however not an excessive amount of) oblique gentle. They even profit from being barely potbound—a professional for any starting gardener.
That feels like quite a lot of vegetation we develop indoors in temperate areas, proper? However fiddle leaf figs could be completely satisfied within the circumstances you present them for months or years, then all of the sudden undergo with what appears to be a really small (or seemingly no) change in care.
An excessive amount of or too little water, not sufficient gentle, shock from a sudden change in rising circumstances—all can set off the dreaded leaf drop. First leaves start yellowing at their bases, then develop brown patches, then fall off fully. As soon as it begins, there’s nothing for it however to attempt to save just a few cuttings with wholesome leaves and take a look at once more. You could possibly nurse a denuded fiddle leaf fig again to life, however its leaves will not regrow of their unique spots.
If this wasn’t traumatic sufficient for a starting gardener, the truth that fiddle leaf figs are usually on the pricier aspect—particularly when you purchase them as good, tall specimens. That may be some huge cash to gamble on such a finicky, fiddly plant.
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Why Rubber Plant Is a Newbie-Pleasant Different
The Spruce / Jason Donnelly
For those who’re a starting gardener in search of a tall houseplant with verdant jungle vibes, there is a safer wager than a fiddle leaf fig. As a substitute of blowing your houseplant price range on a high-risk fiddle leaf fig, attempt beginning with its easygoing cousin, the rubber plant, as a substitute. This fellow member of the genus Ficus is faster-growing, simply as fairly, and rather more forgiving—to not point out usually extra inexpensive.
If it is the dramatic peak you crave, rejoice—rubber vegetation can develop quickly, as much as two toes every year in optimum indoor circumstances.
Along with their magnificence and peak, rubber vegetation are a lot simpler to take care of than fiddle leaf figs. Their Achilles heel is overwatering, so err on the aspect of neglect and you will just do superb—particularly in winter, after they profit from little to no water. Maintain them away from sudden adjustments in temperature, give them plenty of oblique gentle and common humidity, and watch them thrive.
Even higher? Rubber vegetation are very simple to propagate—that means that when you do run into issues, you possibly can attempt to regrow some wholesome development ideas into new vegetation, or take pleasure in sharing props from a wholesome plant with associates.
A part of the enjoyment of houseplant care is studying out of your errors. I’ve realized extra from the specimens I’ve killed (or virtually killed) in my 15-year plant journey than from those I’ve helped thrive. However there is not any cause to take a position large bucks in a fiddle leaf fig once you’re simply beginning out. As a substitute, save your pennies and wait till you have gotten the dangle of one thing simpler and extra inexpensive like a rubber plant as a substitute.