What I Think And A Fiddle Leaf Fig Tree

So I can't put this off any longer.  It's important, right?  To write (type) the things that go on inside my head?  Because someday someone will care.  Someday, I will care.

I told you how last year I realized a very painful truth about myself, right?   I realized that I am a very selfish person.  Sad, huh?  Totally.  Because mothers, especially, are supposed to be unselfish.  They are supposed to be willing to sacrifice everything for their husbands and children.  So this year I have been taking little steps to practice being unselfish.  And it's hard!  But I'm working on it.  The other day at the soccer field, I had come prepared in my nice, warm down coat.  Danin had not come prepared.  She was cold.  So you know what I did?  I offered her my coat!!  And then she was really warm and I was less warm, but really warm in my heart because I had done something that was unselfish.  Also, the other night after having worked on the house with Brian, I suggested we go out to eat.  I love going out to eat.  And even though I felt like eating Mexican food, I told Brian it would be totally fine for him to order a stuffed-crust pizza instead.  He did, and I just had a big bowl of cereal--probably Wheat Chex, which I love--and 2% milk.  (I love 2% milk.)  But so unselfish, right??  And then tonight, when we were having dessert,   I asked Brian if he wanted the piece of cake that had the big chunk of brownie on top before taking it for myself.  My levels of unselfishness are getting crazy high.  :)

So anyway, I'm working on that.

And I'm working on raising several fiddle leaf fig trees right now.  If you like decorating at all or ever look through a decorating magazine, you know that a fiddle leaf fig is practically nonnegotiable.  So back in January, I purchased my first baby fig--on Amazon, if you can believe it!--and it came all wrapped up in a little box in the mail.  A month later, I bought another one that was about 3' tall at a nursery in Portland.  It was doing awesome, except that it was kinda growing tall and narrow, instead of bushy like I wanted it to grow, so I read everything there is to read about fiddle leaf figs on the internet and then successfully pruned it.  Pruning these trees forces new branches to grow out of the main trunk beneath the pruning spot.  I even took the top that I had cut off and put it in a jar of water in order to start a new plant, and it worked!!  So now my original plant has two new branches and lots of new leaves, and I actually have TWO new fiddle leaf plants that are the result of the propagation.  So awesome, huh?!!   Please be excited with me about this, because it has seriously made me so happy to see all this growth.  Like, I get giddy with excitement. (Side note: When I was a little girl and my family was living on Prince Lane, we planted a lawn.  Every day I watched the dirt to see if any little blades of grass were poking through yet.   And soon enough, little cow pies started to  push up all over the yard by new, little tufts of grass.  I wanted so badly to knock those little cakes of dirt off in order to reveal the new grass underneath (and sometimes I did), but my dad (or mom, maybe?) had told me that it was important to let the grass break through the dirt on its own because it would be too weak to withstand the sun if it was uncovered too early.)  ANYWAY, just like I've cared about making my bed perfectly for 30 years, so have I always had a fascination with watching plants develop and grow.  And the leaves on fiddle leaf figs grow so fast that you can practically watch them getting bigger.  So it's totally cool.  And every time I see a new leaf sprouting, I take a picture and text it to Steph.  And she get's excited with me.  Thanks, Steph.

My little Fiddle Leaf Fig baby from Amazon.  

Amazon baby after about 2 or 3 months

This is the tree I bought at the portland nursery

A couple months after buying it and right after it had fully developed three large new leaves, I cut the top of the plant (to force new branches to grow) as well as several of the lower leaves.

Here is a close-up of the spot where I cut top of the main trunk off.  It is so hard to do when you are cutting off the newest, most beautiful leaves!

These are the starts of two new branches which immediately developed a total of five new leaves!

I also pruned the top of a second smaller trunk of my main tree and two new branches formed there as well!

This is the top that I chopped off of the top of my main plant

After about a month or so, it finally started to grow roots!  Yay!

After all the roots were about two inches long, I planted it in dirt in a pot.  Right now it is sprouting its own first new leaves!  I'll post pictures soon!

This is the SECOND round of new leaves on my main plant since my pruning.  This means the main stem (or trunk) of this tree has now grown two new branches and a total of eight new leaves just since I pruned it a month or two ago.  So fun!

 P.S.  As it happened, during the time that I was pruning and caring for this tree, we just happened to be studying Jacob 5 in Gospel Doctrine.  So that was cool.

No Fiddle Leaves here.  Just a room that I love.  :)

 Awwww boy...  Now I've rattled on about fiddle leaf figs and not really written much of anything about the stuff that is going on inside my head.  Another day, I'll write about how sad I am that so many of my friendships have changed; and about how I'm watching Camp become a teenager and i'm proud and terrified at the same time; and about how Jane admitted to me that she doesn't feel comfortable telling me things because I expect her to be perfect (She's right.  :(  I'm so grateful she told me and I'm working on it.); and about how Danin just trusted me with a special secret and it made me so happy;  and about how Skip will be in kindergarten in the fall and I will lose my baby; and about how I wish so bad he had one really good friend;  and about how Sarah made me laugh so hard on the phone the other day that it made me so lonely for laughter; and about how Brian and I have been getting along SO much better lately....  And the house!  I'll write about the house, too.

Right now, though, it's late--and I need to wash my face and put on my Rapidlash.  So another time...