I think I'd probably leave repotting until the spring, as growth slows down in the winter. When you do this, maybe you could devise a different method of support if it has outgrown this frame? I haven't come across a Rubber Plant trained like this before - they're normally free-standing plants. It is a Ficus elastica, is it?

I've seen one in a Garden Centre which has grown to an immense size - it's up to the roof!

I doubt its a Ficus elastica, or Rubber Plant, possibly some other kind of fig, I'd have thought, any chance of a photo?

I was very doubtful, too, Bamboo.

It sounds to me more like a Hoya or a Stephanotis, since they are often sold this way.

Hi guys, thank you very much for your comments so far... I have now uploaded a picture for you...

Well, thats definitely Ficus elastica of some kind, or possibly F. benghalensis. Best time to repot is Spring, but if its desperate, you will have to do it now. Unfortunately, you cannot remove the framework - if you do, the plant will simply collapse and droop over anything around it.

That poor plant! I feel quite sorry for it. :-((

I've never seen one done that way, myself, and I obviously wasn't generating a good mental picture of it! Sorry to doubt you, NG!

So do I Spritzhenry, it was left at my house by the old owners and now I don't know what to do with the poor thing!

Were it mine, a quiet removal to outside and left to fend for itself (which it won't, of course) would be my solution...

Would you Bamboo? Ah... I feel that is a sad end... I was hoping I might be able to save it!

Well you will, its not dying, and repotting into a larger container with fresh compost, plus perhaps a larger framework, would help it enormously. It's just not a plant I would choose, but I never have the heart to just bin them, so I take the coward's way out ...

Bamboo, I know what you mean, I wouldn't have chose it either... I find it a bit ugly to be honest! But as I was left with it, it has fallen upon me to try and salvage it!

My feeling is, its in my living room and frankly, if I don't find it attractive, then it ain't staying... got plenty of other options for houseplants which are attractive, thanks. Anyway, currently I have about 25 houseplants... so the last thing I'd need is one I don't like, lol!

I seem to recall a method of propagating this - by cutting part-way through a shoot and binding moss round the cut? Someone must know this - come on, please help me on the method! That might help N. gardener to grow a new plant so that this one can be laid to its rest. (RIP).

My inlaws tried that with one plant that got too tall - seem to remember it was making a cut, then binding moss or sand and soil mix to it with budding tape or similar. It didn't work though... and I have to say, the new one probably won't be any more attractive than this one, and if Novicegardener is anything like me, he still won't have the heart to chuck out the old one even if it does work, so then he'll be stuck with two of the blasted things...

LOL. Well - I'll take a look in my propagation books, as I'm curious now. Ng might want to have a go - or not, as the case might be! ;-)

Aerial Layering,
Take a 3 inch clay pot, break a V shape halfway down the pot, put a stick through the drainage hole , push the stick into the soil of the parent plant pot. Fill the pot with sandy soil, make an upward cut halfway through the piece you are layering, put a piece of flint in the cut, put the cut part into the soil. As you have this plant indoors you can do it now, keep moist.

Gosh! I wonder if Novice gardener will try?

I wonder, that's just one way of doing it. I have done it many times.