What it is
Rubber Plant (Ficus elastica) is in the Moraceae (Mulberry) family. A bold, glossy-leaved fig relative that becomes a small indoor tree. Wipe the big leaves to keep them shining.
How to grow it
It wants bright indirect light, water it moderate, and give it well-drained potting mix soil. Target a soil pH around 6.0-6.5. Space plants about Pot apart. Expect roughly Cuttings root. Tender houseplant.
How it's used
Rubber Plant is used: houseplant.
🔎 How to identify it
- Large glossy leathery leaves
- Upright woody trunk
- Milky sap
Not for eating
How to grow & propagate rubber plant
Everything I've worked out about starting this one, keeping it alive through a Texas year, and turning one plant into many — free.
How to propagate rubber plant
Figs and mulberries are some of the easiest woody plants to clone. Take a pencil-thick hardwood cutting while the plant is dormant in winter, stick two-thirds of it in soil, keep it barely moist, and it'll leaf out and root by spring. One mature tree can give you a whole orchard for the price of a pruning.
Beginner's path: take more cuttings than you think you need. They're free, they cost you nothing but a few minutes, and the ones that take more than make up for the ones that don't. This is how a single plant becomes a hedge, a row, or a gift for every neighbor on the street.
Growing rubber plant in Texas
Give it bright indirect light and well-drained potting mix soil. Match the spot to the plant and most of the battle is already won.
Time your planting to our long warm season and watch the frost dates at both ends; the live weather tool on this site is built for exactly that.
In a container it'll dry faster than in the ground, so check the top inch of soil daily in summer; pots on a hot Texas patio can need water every single day.
Harvesting
Figure on roughly cuttings root before you're harvesting. Pick herbs in the morning after the dew dries for the strongest oils, and harvest little and often — regular cutting keeps a herb bushy and stops it bolting.
Making more for free
If you want more, let your healthiest plants mature fully and collect the seed once it's dry on the plant — then store it somewhere cool, dark, and dry until next season.
Part of the free Texas Roots plant database, compiled by Jordan Polasek from his greenhouse in El Campo, Texas. Free to read and share. If it helped, the best thanks is to grow something.