Why you might be surprised that your fiddle leaf fern can flourish outside ...Middle East

One of the most popular houseplants today is the fiddle leaf fig (Ficus lyrata). Yet this arboreal gem is also a candidate for outdoor growing.

You would not know this from looking at the climate zones considered appropriate for this species. Yet if grown in a partial sun exposure, where it receives a few hours of the day’s sun, the fiddle leaf fig is a worthy candidate for outdoor growing in much of the greater Los Angeles area, at least in Orange County and points south, but perhaps in the San Fernando Valley and Inland Empire as well. Be aware that there is a recently introduced cream and green variegated fiddle leaf fig, as well as Bambino, a dwarf fiddle leaf that grows 7 feet tall as opposed to the 20 feet a regular fiddle leaf reaches at maturity.

Plants not recommended for growing in our inland valleys often perform well in these areas, nevertheless. In my own east San Fernando Valley neighborhood, there are tall hedges of weeping fig (Ficus benjamina) that are flourishing, including in the backyard next to mine, although some would say they have no business being planted here. “Sunset Western Garden Book,” long considered the horticultural bible of Western gardeners, excludes my geographical area as favorable for the growth of weeping fig. Long-leaf weeping fig (Ficus alii) has cultural requirements similar to the aforementioned tree, except that it is slower growing and easier to keep confined to its container. As for any containerized tree, once its roots fill the pot, extract it and symmetrically pare down its root ball by one-third. Refill the container with fresh soil and repot. By regular paring of the root ball, you can keep a plant in the same container for many, many years.

“Sunset Western Garden Book” also prescribes growing elephant ear tree or Roxburgh fig (Ficus auriculata/roxburghii), one of the most exotic trees under the sun, in my locale. Yet I have seen it growing lush in the west San Fernando Valley, where the winters are colder than where I reside. Elephant ear tree is notable for several unusual characteristics. Its leaves are enormous, more than a foot across, and oval to heart-shaped. These leaves emerge mahogany in color before turning green. The fruit, which grow in clusters on the trunk and scaffold branches, are jumbo size compared to ordinary figs, reaching four inches across. These figs are also edible with a taste that combines strawberry, raspberry, and vanilla flavors. However, this species of fig is strictly dioecious, meaning there are separate male and female trees. In order for edible fruit to form, you will need one tree of each.

To understand fig reproduction, we need to recognize that the fruit we eat is a structure known as a syconium, which contains either male or female flowers. A specialized kind of miniature wasp, from the Agaonidae or fig wasp family, enters the male syconium via a tiny ostiole opening at its base and lays its eggs. After the larvae hatch and grow into adults, the winged wasp fly to a female syconium, entering through its ostiole, and pollinates its flowers. Without pollination, the female syconium will not develop into an edible fruit. In any case, the male syconium remains inedible. There are commercial orchards of elephant ear fig trees in Thailand and India where the fruit are consumed raw or cooked, or processed into juices and jams. These trees are also used for ornamental purposes as they grow only 25 feet tall and the foliage produces an attractive umbrella canopy.

It should be noted that ordinary fig trees (Ficus carica) may have female syconia alone or a combination of female and male syconia. However, all familiar fig varieties are parthenocarpic, meaning that the female syconia develop into tasty fruit without the benefit of pollination so male syconia are not needed for their maturation and ripening.Although rubber trees (Ficus elastica) are invariably found in our nurseries’ indoor plant sections, I have seen them growing outdoors throughout Southern California. You won’t find them in the gardens of single-family homes but often enough, in apartment building landscapes. It is evident that a resident transplanted their indoor specimen outside and it just kept growing, eventually reaching a height of two or three stories.

Robusta, the most common variety, has green foliage but there are several others worth considering, especially since they are notoriously easy to grow. Moonshine has foliage that is cream-colored with green blotches; Tineke has foliage variegated with different shades of lime green that combine with patches of white and new leaves may be entirely pink; Rubra has reddish and Decora has bronzy younger leaves that later turn to green; Burgundy’s older leaves turn maroon; Black Prince and Black Knight rubber trees have deep burgundy foliage and, when grown in containers, placement of white gravel or chartreuse reindeer moss for mulch offers an arresting contrast to the leaves.

For outdoor use, you may want to avoid planting a rubber tree. Growth is explosive with roots that can raise sidewalks and crack a building’s foundation. You will prune this tree until it exhausts your pocketbook and your patience when you will finally want it removed. Incidentally, this is not the tree from whose sap the rubber of commerce was made until the early years of the last century. That tree (Hevea brasiliensis) was a member of the Euphorbiaceae family whose sap, like that of ficus trees, is highly viscous.

Natal fig (Ficus natalensis/triangularis) has distinctive triangular and waxy foliage that is transformed from light to dark green as leaves mature. Natal fig does best in half-day sun and will benefit from overhead coverage in winter to keep it from freezing. You can keep it in a container indoors as long as it gets plenty of light. Be aware that plants that do fine outdoors in half-day sun or less may need most of the day’s sun, or supplemental fluorescent illumination, when grown indoors.

My beef with Sunset Western Garden Book began with their zoning of orange bells (Tecoma x alate) and yellow bells (Tecoma stans). These large shrubs are covered with flowers most of the year yet you never saw them in the local nursery trade until around a decade ago. I believe this garden guide was partially to blame for this state of affairs since the Tecoma species were considered too cold-sensitive for planting in the San Fernando Valley and Inland Empire. Today, however, the resistance to planting these heavy bloomers has been overcome much to the benefit of those looking for a tall flowering hedge that is nearly always in bloom. Another case in point is the Madagascar dragon tree (Dracaena marginata). This is an elegant, multi-trunk plant with narrow leaves edged in red. Sunset Western Garden Book would banish it from our inland valleys and yet I have seen it growing to a height of eight feet or more on a number of occasions.

California native of the week: California geranium (Geranium californium) is a perennial endemic to the Sierra Nevada that grows into a one-foot mound bearing flowers in white, pink, or lavender with large, highly decorous palmate leaves. It is found in woodlands and meadows and thrives with regular water in light shade as long as soil drainage is good, making it suitable for a rock garden. If anyone knows of a local or mail-order source for this plant, please advise.

Do you have a plant growing where it’s not supposed to? If so, send me an email at [email protected]. Your questions and comments as well as gardening conundrums and successes are always welcome.

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