How Much Does A Ficus Bonsai Tree Cost?

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With over 800 subspecies, it’s safe to say that Ficus trees are one of the most popular indoor tree species. Their easygoing nature makes them ideal for beginners; some ficus species make excellent bonsai. I found finding a quality ficus bonsai from a reputable retailer challenging. As such, how much does a ficus bonsai tree cost? 

The average cost for a Ficus bonsai tree is $36.15 or £28.92. A good price range, however, that most store-bought Ficus bonsai trees will retail for is $20 to $50. Premium Ficus Retusa bonsai trees can retail for upwards of $400. 

So what differences can impact the cost of a Ficus bonsai? And do different focus sub-species cost different amounts? How much is too much to pay for a Ficus bonsai? Keep reading to find out more!

Just a quick heads up, over the past three years of running Plantpaladin, hundreds of people have asked for product recommendations. As such, You can find my favorite indoor bonsai tree here (link takes you to Bonsaiboy), my favorite outdoor bonsai tree (link takes you to Bonsaiboy), or have a look at all the products I recommend here. 

How much does a Ficus bonsai cost?

Now to get to the bottom of exactly how much a Ficus bonsai tree costs, I compared 20 different Ficus bonsai trees and over 100 bonsai trees of various species. 

I also asked ten plant paladin readers who own Ficus how much they paid for them. 

All to ensure you have the most up-to-date/accurate post on how much a Ficus bonsai costs. 

To summarize: 

• The average price for a Ficus bonsai is $36.15 or £28.92
• Most Ficus bonsai trees are inexpensive and retail between $20 to $50, or £16 to £40. 
• Ficus bonsai trees are among the cheapest ones available due to being mass-produced and coming in various species. Premium outdoor bonsai, such as Pine or cedar bonsai, can cost upwards of ten times the price of a ficus tree. 
• The cheapest Ficus bonsai trees retail for around $16.24 (£12.99). These bonsai are usually medium-sized, around 30cm tall, under five years old, and are styled in the broom style. 
• Premium Ficus bonsai trees typically retail for $60 to $80 from bonsai nurseries, with the highest quality Ficus bonsai retailing for over $493 (£395) to $1000. 
• However, paying more than $50 for an indoor Ficus bonsai tree will be unnecessary for most beginners. 
• Now while these ranges are accurate, the exact price of your Ficus will depend on the overall quality of the tree. 
• The most significant factors that impact the cost of your Ficus bonsai tree are age and size, and species. 
• Typically, Ginseng ficus and Ficus Benjamina are among the cheaper subspecies, with Ficus Retusa bonsai being the most expensive.  
• Older, more giant bonsai trees will typically cost much more than younger, more miniature bonsai, which tend to be a dime a dozen. 

Now this is quite a lot of information, so let’s break it down in more detail. 

Ficus bonsai costs

As mentioned, I compared well over 100 bonsai trees from 22 well-known suppliers to get this information as accurately as possible.

These suppliers were well-known bonsai nurseries such as Herons to massive multinationals like Amazon. 

I compared many popular bonsai species to ensure we could work out if you overpay for your Ficus bonsai and ensure the averages were accurate. 

I also visited my local botanical gardens to ask if the prices seemed reasonable. 

You can find the complete comparison of Ficus bonsai trees below: 

How much does a small-sized Ficus bonsai cost? 

So first up, how much does a small Ficus bonsai tree cost? 

As mentioned earlier, smaller bonsai trees cost significantly less than larger ones. 

On top of this, smaller Ficus bonsai trees are much more commonplace, even being able to find them in non-garden/home stores. 

It makes them much easier to find than their larger counterparts, meaning they will also be cheaper due to economies of scale. 

Now bonsai trees classified as small typically fall into the shohin category of 10cm to 15cm or less. 

So how much does a small Ficus bonsai cost? 

A small Ficus bonsai, categorized as Shohin style or 0 to 15cm tall, costs $28.12 or £22.49 on average. These bonsai are amongst the cheapest bonsai trees you can purchase due to being commonplace in almost all garden centers/nurseries. 

How much does a medium-sized Ficus bonsai cost? 

Next up, medium-sized Ficus bonsai. 

Like their smaller-sized counterparts, medium-sized Ficus bonsai trees are also incredibly commonplace and, believe it or not, are much easier to source than their smaller counterparts.

So does this commonality impact the price of a medium-priced Ficus? 

Most medium-sized ficus trees fall in the price range of $40 to $60. A medium-sized Ficus bonsai tree that falls in the Chohin, Kumono, or Katade-Mochi size categories (20 to 46cm) costs $91.55. This is about $70 more expensive than smaller-sized Ficus bonsai. 

So we touched on this earlier, but what are size classifications? 

Well, typically, bonsai trees are grown in various sizes, mainly when being grown for competitions. 

The most miniature-sized bonsai trees fall in the Keshitsubo category, which is 1 to 8cm big or 1 to 3 inches tall. 

The largest category is imperial-sized bonsai which can grow as tall as 200cm. 

Typically, the larger a Ficus bonsai tree becomes, and the higher it moves up a category, the more expensive they become. 

To read more about size classification, check out my post here. 

How much does a large-sized Ficus bonsai cost? 

Finally, we come to sizeable Ficus bonsai trees. 

Now it is rarer to find nurseries and online stores selling more giant bonsai trees as most retail and sell in auctions and sites like eBay. 

On top of this, Ficus trees are incredibly slow growing, only averaging a few cm of growth per year. 

As such, if you find a larger-sized ficus tree, then odds are, it will be costly, even for commonplace bonsai species like Ficus. 

That said, I did manage to find out the averages of more giant bonsai trees that are over 50cm using the data above: 

The average price of a large Ficus bonsai tree is $1868 or £1495. The larger Ficus bonsai become, the more expensive they are, with 20-year-old large bonsai retailing for over $1000.  

do sub-species impact a ficus bonsai trees cost?

So size is a significant factor that impacts the price of a Ficus bonsai, but an even more significant factor is the species you opt for. 

You see, unlike other bonsai tree species, Ficus comes in hundreds of different varieties, all of which look quite different. 

The most common species used for ficus bonsai are: 

• Ginseng ficus
• Ficus Benjamina 
• Ficus retusa 
• Microcarpa Ficus 

So how does the Ficus sub-species impact price? 

The average ficus bonsai tree species are ginseng ficus, with an average price of $28.12. The most expensive ficus bonsai tree species are ficus Retusa, with an average price of $156.55. Ficus Bejamina is also relatively inexpensive, averaging a price point of $32.37

This removes the outlier of the $1000 ginseng ficus we talked about earlier, which is a scarce find. 

To explain more, I’ve enclosed a table below: 

How much does a 5-year-old Ficus bonsai cost? 

So now that we have considered size, the second central element that can impact the cost of a Ficus bonsai tree is the tree’s age. 

So does this ring true for ficus bonsai? How much does a Ficus bonsai cost? 

The average price of a 5-year-old Ficus bonsai tree is $35.46 (£28.37). The cheapest 5-year-old Ficus bonsai will cost $9.99 for small-sized bonsai. The most a 5-year-old Ficus bonsai will cost is $61.86 for trees with an informal upright style.  

How much does a 10-year-old Ficus bonsai cost?

So while 5-year-old bonsai trees are commonplace, do older trees cost more between 5 to ten years? 

The average price for Ficus bonsai trees between 5 to 10 years old is $27.18 (£29.74). Surprisingly, this is only slightly more expensive than 5 -year old bonsai trees.

Using the data in the table at the start of this post, you can see that Ficus trees beat the trend of older bonsai trees being more expensive in the 5 to 10-year-old bracket, with prices seemingly dependent on other factors. 

How much does a 20-year-old Ficus bonsai tree cost? 

So 10-year-old Ficus bonsai trees cost less than 5-year-old Ficus bonsai, but is this the case with larger 20-year-old Ficus bonsai? 

The average price for a 20-year-old Ficus bonsai is $612.66 (£490). This is a significant increase of over $500 compared to 5 and 10-year-old bonsai. This extra expense is entirely down to the aesthetic appeal and design of the bonsai. 

On top of this, as mentioned, most ficus bonsai species are very slow-growing, meaning larger varieties are much more likely to retail for a premium price. 

Does style impact the cost of a Ficus bonsai tree? 

So age and size are the three most significant factors that impact the price of a Ficus bonsai.  

Does the style of a tree impact the cost of a ficus bonsai? 

After all, bonsai typically fall into multiple style categories for competition, whether broom, cascade, or informal upright. 

Ficus bonsai trees with a cascade or multiple trunk design are more expensive than other bonsai styles. Cascade bonsai typically averages $263, and multiple trunk bonsai have an average price of $513. 

In my post on how much a bonsai tree costs, I found that, regardless of species, bonsai trees with a multiple-trunk design or a cascade are significantly more expensive than other styles. 

The main reason for this is the time it takes to grow a bonsai tree with multiple trunks, most of which take 30 to 50 years. 

Ficus bonsai grown with multiple trunks is likely the most expensive tree style. 

As such, I’ve enclosed a table below highlighting what you can expect to pay for a bonsai ( regardless of species) depending on several of the most common styles:

What is the most you should pay for a Ficus bonsai?

So having run through the data quite in-depth, what is the price to pay for a Ficus bonsai tree if you want to pull out all the stops and go for a premium expensive tree? 

The most you should pay for a premium Ficus bonsai tree is $650. This considers that the tree is relatively large, older than 20 years, and has a significant bonsai style such as cascade or multiple trunk styles. Most Ficus can easily be purchased for $20 to $50. 

You should avoid paying over $700 for Ficus bonsai trees as cheaper alternatives are likely available. 

What is a fair price to pay for a Ficus bonsai? 

A fair price for a Ficus bonsai tree will be between $20 and $60. This considers that the tree is under ten years old, is no bigger than 35cm, and has a formal upright, broom, or informal upright style. 

If you are a beginner looking for your first bonsai tree, I recommend staying within the $60 mark. 

Do store-bought or online Ficus bonsai trees cost more? 

Online Ficus bonsai trees cost less than directly from a nursery. You can pick up a 30cm Ficus bonsai on Amazon for around $37. From Heron’s bonsai nursery, this is equivalent to $48. 

Now the only caveat to this will be the quality of the tree, with bonsai nurseries much more likely to have higher quality, healthier Ficus trees; With a broader variety of sizes and shapes, you will be paying a premium.

What are the other costs associated with a Ficus bonsai? 

So Ficus bonsai are relatively inexpensive, like all bonsai trees, but they have other costs.

These include: 

• Wire – to help shape your tree – typically between $15 to $25
• Fertilizer – to help feed your tree ‘$80 to $100 for a good quality fertilizer 
• Soil – $10 to $20 
• Pots – to repot and ensure your tree’s roots aren’t squished – $166 on average for a good quality pot. 
• Tools – $40 to $100 for a good bonsai tool set to cut, trim and shape your tree. 
• Turntables – to move your tree when trimming $10 to $20
• Pesticides – $30 to $100 on an excellent pesticide
• Grow lights – $30 to $60, depending on the size. 

How much do Ficus bonsai seeds cost? 

Bonsai seeds, regardless of species, are relatively inexpensive. Ficus bonsai tree seeds are inexpensive, costing between $5 and $15. Most seed packs contain multiple seeds, usually between 8 and 50 individual seeds. 

How expensive are Ficus bonsai when compared with other bonsai trees? 

So now you know how expensive a bonsai tree costs; how does this stack up when compared with other bonsai species? 

Well, luckily, I’ve pulled this information to in the table below, but to summarize: 

Ficus bonsai trees are among the cheapest bonsai tree species, costing an average of $36.15 per tree. Fukien tea bonsai ($40.43) is also an incredibly cheap bonsai tree option. 

Ficus bonsai, then, are significantly cheaper than hardy outdoor bonsai, such as Scots Pine which can retail for over $1000 per tree. 

How much does a bonsai tree cost – Survey results 

Finally, I asked 20 plant paladin readers how much they bought their Ficus bonsai for. 

To summarise: 

My top picks for the gear you will need!

So like I mentioned earlier, over the past three years of running PlantPaladin, hundreds of people have asked me for my recommendations on the best bonsai gear on the market. 

Having spent thousands of dollars on bonsai items these past few years and tested at least 100 bonsai-specific products, I’ve listed my favorite products below – All of which I highly recommend and think you can get great value. 

They can purchase directly by clicking the link to take them to Amazon. 

Bonsai Tool Set: One of the significant challenges I’ve had is finding a toolset that was not only durable but didn’t break the bank. SOLIGT has recently developed a fantastic bonsai tool set that covers all the tools you need to trim, prune, and repot your trees. – You can grab it here. 

Complete Bonsai Set: Many of you will want to grow your bonsai trees entirely from scratch, but finding the varicose seeds, pots, and other items in one place can be challenging. Leaves and Sole then have created a complete bonsai set that I’ve personally used that ticks all the boxes. You can grab it here. 

Bonsai wire: The number of times I’ve run out of wire for my bonsai or purchased cheap bonsai wire that doesn’t do the job is embarrassing for me to admit. After a lot of trial and error, I found that using Hotop’s aluminum bonsai wire is one of the best options on the market. This can easily be used for both indoor and outdoor bonsai. You can grab it here.