Rubber plants (Ficus elastica) offer many benefits for homes, greenhouses, and offices. It is not surprising that these easy-to-care-for live plants are so popular in homes and offices. You only have to look around you at local business offices, cubicles, and even shopping malls to see an array of these indoor plants displayed.
Indoor varieties can grow to several feet in height with magnificent displays of plant leaves. These are one of the distinguishing features that make these houseplants so popular. In fact, they’re really not a house plant at all. The indoor plants are actually small trees. The wild varieties can reach enormous heights of 30 feet or more.
One of the benefits of rubber plants is their ability to help remove pollutants from the air. There is pet dander, pollen and other allergens in many homes. The potted plants synthesize the surrounding air to help purify it naturally. Artificial plants are not able to do this like the rubber plants and thus offer fewer advantages than fake plants.
It is not uncommon for the leaves to be up to a foot in length and several inches in diameter for rubber plants. The foliage is thick. Dirt, dust and other air pollutants naturally settle on the surface of the potted plants. It is almost as if the houseplants act as a magnet to pull junk out of the air and clean it for you.
These indoor plants are so large and regal that they literally bring nature indoors. You can fill up a corner section of a room or set a smaller version on an office desk. Their size alone enables this potted plant to add nature to virtually any indoor decorating scheme.
Beginning gardeners to experts enjoy having houseplants that are inexpensive. You can easily multiply and propagate rubber plants to have more in your home or office. This means you literally save money as a benefit. You can even give them away as houseplant gifts to friends, relatives, and coworkers if you have several large starting plants to take cuttings from.
In both the home and office setting, it is nice to have living plants that do not require a great deal of maintenance, fertilization, and other care. Rubber plants are great indoor plants because they require little light, moderate watering and little to no fertilization. Simply plant in organic potting soil with a mulch mixture and you don’t even have to fertilize on a regular basis.
Many times, flowering houseplants can pose a problem because of pollen. People sensitive to pollen may develop allergies as the plant forms blooms and later flower. Rubber plants do not give off pollen and create allergy complications. This makes the potted plant ideal for business, office areas, and even the home.