Ficus

Sweet little evergreen groundcover from southern Taiwan where it grows at low to mid elevation in littoral thickets. Then there are the virtual thickets.... Small rounded leaves and yes, there are very small figs but it would take a lot to make figgy pudding. Zone 8 hardy and grows at the Zone 7 Raulston Arboretum in a sheltered spot where it is deciduous in cold winters. Tolerant of shade.

We first encountered this species in the fall of 1997 when we were on the mid to lower slopes of the Cangshan Mountains looking down to the barely discernible 3 Pagodas of Dali fronting the broad expanse of Lake Erhai. This groundcover species formed broad carpets of evergreen foliage covering the large rocks on the boulder-strewn slope so as to give the impression of a tumultuous green sea frozen in place. The day sounds much better than it was, for back in 97 there was but a rough single track road to the higher elevations and on that day our jeeps were blocked by a massively overloaded lorry whose driveline had failed under the weight of massive marble blocks quarried from the higher reaches. The truck was gradually sinking into the mud with just a few inches of clearance and a young skinny boy had been fetched from downslope to slither underneath and effect repairs, which was going to take many hours at best. This meant we were stranded at low elevation with a bunch of botanically fascinating, marginally hardy plants which was not our goal. We made the best of it and one of our new acquaintances was this Ficus.

We were pleased as punch when our friend Jim Fox gifted us with cuttings he took from Roy Lancaster's garden where it is growing as a foundation plant against his home. It was not a stretch to think that this plant was from the same population we had seen as Roy had traveled this same road years earlier as part of the Sino-British Expedition to Cangshan. Sadly we can't grow this outside here in our gardens but if you are lucky enough to have only very light frosts or none at all, then this would be a fine groundcover. This does have small reddish figs but stick to the ones you get at the store.

These are cutting-grown from a plant Steve Hootman found growing in a garden in Philadelphia where it was defying conventional wisdom as to its hardiness. Being a savvy sort of fellow, he snagged a few cuttings thinking this might prove to be very useful. We think so too although we have not yet trialed it out in our garden. So many plants, so little space. This does seem promising and if your are looking for a small-leafed evergreen creeper that will cling to rocks or a wall, then this might be just the ticket.

Our collection of this especially small-leafed form of Ficus which we are referring to pumila as the geography fits. We observed this looking especially nice climbing vertically up a tree trunk to 6' in light shade. We've not tried it outside for hardiness but should have reasonable cold tolerance.

This is a hybrid named by Sean Hogan which was found at the Ruth Bancroft gardens and is a suspected cross between the creeping Ficus pumila and the big edible fig, Ficus carica. It does seem to be perfectly intermediate. A rambler/scrambler for a sunny spot good for winding through shrubs. Zone 8, tiny figs.

A pretty cool introduction from Cistus Nursery from a batch of seedlings and this stood out with its silvery filigreed leaves. A surprisingly hardy Fig with intriguing foliage and small figs which we have heard rumors of being edible. Insert disclaimer here. We've seen the species growing quite happily in the Cistus display gardens near Portland which attests to its love of heat (they are hot in so many ways) which we don't get here in maritime Port Townsend but which it does have in its native Iran and Afghanistan. Plant this in a hot spot that gets on the dry side - it should love it.