One Of Our 2020 Adventures
A few years back, I caught glimpse of a beautiful tree with big gorgeous leaves and just had to find out what it was called. I did a little research and the Fiddle-Leaf Fig, is a species of flowering plant in the mulberry and fig family, (Moraceae). It is native to western Africa, from Cameroon west to Sierra Leone, where it grows in the lowland tropical rainforest. I’ve had my eye on these for over a year. Every time I would go into Home Depot or a plant store, they always caught my eye. Keep in mind, we are still in the process of decorating our home, incorporating plants and things we love. It takes time and we like to save up for each purchase. I thought this would be the perfect addition. My husband and girls wanted to get me one of these for Mother’s Day. So, a few months back, we decided to give a "live" Fiddle Leaf Tree a try. We read up on it beforehand and knew going into this it would definitely be a challenge to keep this particular tree alive.
We also read that the drive home and relocation process may put the tree into shock, but we would likely not notice it for a month or two. We took an afternoon looking at all of our local plant shops, but the prettiest ones we’ve ever seen are at our Home Depot. After looking a bit, we found the perfect one, purchased it and carefully packed it in the car (keeping in mind to be very careful). It was so funny because it took up the whole inside of our car, barely fitting. I captured the photo of our girls...we laughed the whole trip over this experience, especially at my husband. He’s such a trooper when it comes to our ideas.
We got home, put it in the perfect spot beside our front door where there would be lots of light and sun to keep it thriving. It was so beautiful, we looked at it every time we would pass it. My girls took such very good care of it, especially my youngest. She researched the most and knew exactly how to water it, spray the leaves and turn it occasionally to get the proper lighting. Cheyenne babied it like it was a little child. She absolutely loves plants and is so good with them. Well, a few months passed and we noticed the leaves starting to brown. What they say is true, the trees can go into shock when they are being transported from place to place. A few of the leaves began to wither and fall off the tree. We were so saddened by this, but kept doing everything we knew to do to keep it alive. I’ve never seen anyone take care of plants like our girls. So, if this happens under their care, then it must be ridiculously hard to keep these trees alive. All the videos we’ve seen of people that have one of these mostly all experience this very same thing. We do still have the tree and my little Cheyenne said she’s not about to give up on it. It still has a few leaves and is even starting to grow new ones now because of her care. She asked if she could move it to her room to keep an even closer eye on it while she’s doing school. So that’s where it is now.
As where we are with our project solution for our living room, I found one that looks very similar to the real thing and we absolutely LOVE it! No browning leaves, no watering, always beautiful!
The joy of purchasing the real Fiddle Leaf was worth the trouble...we have no regrets. We also made great memories in a challenging year. However, we are so glad we found the beautiful artificial one that adds a special touch to our home.
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