Samantha wrote: London's weather sounds like paradise to me. You might need to insulate the roots, sustained -7c and bellow, can be rough.

No... Ficus is abolsutely not frosthardy. They need a minimum of 10 degrees to stay alive. F. religiosa seems to be more of a heat-lover than others. Mine only started growing above 25 degrees.

She did not talk about ficuses, but advised to try other species, and mentioned elms.

Madartej21 wrote: She did not talk about ficuses, but advised to try other species, and mentioned elms.

Yet the whole thread is about ficus. And as it is not stated, "now if you would have an elm you could place it outside" it is sometimes best to avoid confusion, and not discuss the care of a completely unrelated tree species. Especially if the suggested treatment means certain death for the species discussed. But hey, who am I.

FlyBonsai wrote: ...Sounds like a good idea. What species would you recommend? I've got some room on balcony and here in London temperatures are 0..+5°C in winter and 20..25°C in summer...

Update flybonsai.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/filter-paper-friuts.html
Primitive lighting:

Update: flybonsai.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/grow-light.html
What schedule of lighting is the best for Ficus? Is it 24h/day? 9-20? 7-22?

Ficus naturally grows in the (sub) tropics. I would aim for a 12/12 - 14/10 balance between light and dark.

What can go wrong if I keep 24H lighting? I read some species need darkness to trigger blossoming, but that's not at all a concern in my case.

Plants have different internal processes running in the light and in the dark. The dark/light rythm in general affects hormonal balances and the way roots/shoots develop. I do not know what could go wrong. So have a try. To me it just 'feels' like asking for a disaster, but I am not about to go ona literature hunt to find out the consequences.

Update flybonsai.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/triple-...cluding-shagnum.html