Ficus Bonsai & Prebonsai for Sale

 Pickup, Delivery, and Shipping Options/Policy

            Local pickup is free in the Columbus, Ohio area, or pickup is also available when I road trip, especially to bonsai shows around my area of the Midwest. Delivery is also free if not more than 15 minutes out of my way from home or on any of these trips. See here for the most updated list of pickup sites/delivery routes I will be making in the coming months. 

            If you would like to have any of my products shipped to you, see my Etsy page invivobonsai.etsy.com (almost all prices include shipping) or contact me if the item is not listed on my Etsy and I'll look into a cost estimate. Contacting me can also get you a cheaper price than buying through Etsy as there will be fewer fees and shipping multiple items can be combined.

Ficus Bonsai Available in Columbus, Ohio from In Vivo Bonsai

Last updated, 12/26/2025

Sections:

1. Ficus Care Guide
1. Basic Info
2. Watering
3. Lighting
4. Varieties
5. Propagation Info
2. Sale Info
1. Ficus macrocarpa
2. Ficus benjamina
3. Mature Starters/Workshop Trees (not in ceramic pots)
3. Sold Example Gallery + Pruning Tips

Photographed ~Aug 2025.

I. Ficus Care Guide:

A. Basic Info

            Ficus are a genus (and common name) of several species of beginner-friendly tropical trees/vines that can be styled as a bonsai. Because they are tropical, they can be grown indoors year-round or outdoors in summer and indoors in winter to avoid freezing. The advantages of this species include its resilience, ease of propagation through cuttings, rapid growth rate in ideal conditions such as when placed outside over summer, and creative opportunities as this species is capable of forming aerial roots. Ficuses grow mostly in rainforest environments around the world and are in the same genus as the edible fig, but most Ficus I have seen for use in bonsai only produce small, unremarkable fruit.

B. Watering

            I water my ficuses 1-2x/week in the winter, depending on the light intensity of their spot in the home. Anytime the soil is dry to the touch, I water it. Ficus are less drought tolerant than the jade or dwarf jade in that regard. The light green new leaves and branch tips will dry out first, as these new leaves lack the protective waxy cuticle that prevents drying out. Therefore, any wilting or dessication will be noticed there first, indicating it needs watered ASAP. Oftentimes if a Ficus goes without water too long, they will drop their leaves but they are resilient in the sense that they usually survive this and bounce back. They can also drop leaves if their environment changes drastically (ie moving from indoors to outdoors and vice versa). Becoming pot-bound and providing higher humidity are stimuli for aerial root formation.

C. Lighting

            Most Ficus species thrive in full sun or under intense grow lights, but they also can survive in winter with only the light from a window. Although, because the light from a window is so much less, they may appear leggy and less dense over time, depending on species. It helps if you can put them back outside each summer or under a grow light to keep them healthy and full in appearance. Some ficus species are used for house plants and are particularly shade tolerant like Ficus benjamina, fiddle leaf fig, or the rubber tree, although the latter two are used for bonsai less often due to their leaf size.

D. Species/Varieties

            Ficus is a large genus with many species. For my part, I carry mainly Ficus benjamina, Ficus macrocarpa, and Ficus retusa which I propagated from older trees by branch cuttings. I also have a variegated specimen of Ficus benjamina that I am working on propagating and may have some available in coming years.

E. Propagation Info

            You can propagate branch cuttings in water or in soil but the latter is my preference for simplicity. No root hormone is required, but it may help.

II. Sale Info

        These Ficus beginner-friendly bonsai starters I sell quickly for a low price so the stock is always rotating. This makes them not great to put online since that is a time-consuming process but some available are pictured below. If interested in buying one, please feel free to contact me for updated pictures of the latest options.

A. Ficus macrocarpa

FM1 - Twin Trunk young shohin in white bowl with drainage hole

    Potted and pruned in fall 2025. The trunks could do with wiring to give them some movement but otherwise, I will allow the tree to grow out again in response to this pruning and give me more to work with for future styling. $20

Photographed ~Sep/Oct 2025

B. Ficus benjamina

FB1 - Twin Trunk ~3 yr old shohin in green bowl with drainage hole

    This Ficus benjamina has been in training in this ceramic bowl for 1-2 years now. The ramification is building each year but the tree might be improved further by repotting into a larger pot and allowing it to grow into a larger tree. As it has been in this pot for a while, it is starting to develop good nebari/surface roots because pot bound ficus tend to shoot out new surface roots in search of water. $45

C. Mature Starters/Workshop Trees (not in ceramic pots)

            Typically, I propagate my tropicals in shallow pots as this saves space and not all cuttings survive (although for dwarf jade, branches are a near guaranteed success). Then, either in workshops or on my own, I separate the mature ones into individual pots, but I've found that after ~1 yr, the jades do not have a very developed root system, so lately I think additional time in their own pots will improve the ease of their use for workshops. So I am starting to separate my workshop trees/prebonsai into individual plastic containers before using them in bonsai pots. Smaller prebonsai will need another year in these pots before being recommended for workshops or being made into beginner bonsai, whereas more established prebonsai can be used straight away.

• Smaller/less developed prebonsai ficus generally ~$5/each.
• Larger/more established prebonsai ficus generally ~$10-15 each.

Larger ficus for workshops/prebonsai. Some pruning/wiring can be done on them for next steps.

One example here is a freshly repotted rooted ficus cutting on the small/immature stage. Photographed November 2025.

III. SOLD Archive

FM - Clip and grow curved trunk shohin ficus in bonsai pot

    Potted, pruned, and photographed in Aug 2025. The tree is at least 3-4 years old. This tree was available at Yelo Apple, one of my local in-person consignment partners in Columbus, OH.

Photographed ~Aug 2025.

FM2 - Starter ficus in a bonsai pot

    This one was potted as a small cutting in winter 2025, then allowed to grow without pruning over the summer. It lost some leaves when a watering was missed, but it responded with new growth and many new branches (not pictured). Those will be useful for the next owner refining this small prebonsai into something more mature and ramified!