ficus elastica

Dear Ciara, A productive afternoon in the garden. While The Organist mowed the back lawn, I pottered about in the cool, late-afternoon sun. As I worked, weeding and pruning, I remembered that I had been avoiding an important job: pruning back our rubber tree. We have many trees in our garden, but perhaps the most striking is our ficus elastica. It is the burgundy variety, so the leaves are a deep purple colour reminiscent of red wine. While a gorgeous tree, it should never have been planted in the garden. Rubber trees are highly invasive in Tropical Queensland and can go from tiny little cuttings to monstrous 50-metre-tall trees in the blink of an eye. There is one a few streets back from us that has essentially swallowed an entire drain in its mass. Not ideal. They also send out deep, twisting roots that can cause significant damage to pipes if not maintained. Ours was here when we bought our house, so we have inherited the responsibility of keeping it small and manageable. Armed…

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