My Finicky Fiddle

Dear Friends,

This is a quick little cautionary tale of how I, a woman who barely knows the meaning of the word patience, recently found myself high on a stool, soft towel in hand gentling wiping the delicate leaves of a plant!! You can also view this as a tale of how decor magazines/blogs secretly brought me down!

As a lover of all things decor related, I had been noticing the Fiddle Leaf Fig Tree glamorizing homes left and right and of course I naively thought "wouldn't my place look nice with one of those!" So last summer, I found one at a large nursery and decided it was high time the plant came home with me to work it's glamorizing magic. (Note: Fancy plant does not come with glamor shots of your home, fabulous furniture, awesome artwork or Bameleke feather hanging on your wall.)

Since then my friends, it has been an amazing journey of plants sheer will to survive in the face of my every ignorant move! First, I forgot what the plant was even called! Then the common sense step of finding the plant's name fell by the waist-side as I gallivanted around the globe. By gallivanting, please read "not watering the plant for weeks at a time, coming home, rushing the plant outside, and drowning it in water then repeating the cycle again." A few months ago, I finally got a hold of the plant's name again and when I googled the plant care instructions... (yeah I know, something that would have been wise to do before buying the plant)...I was shocked to find out that a) the plant prefers to stay in one location (hence moving it around my apartment or rushing it outside was NOT in it's best interest); b) it does not liked to be drowned with water at random intervals; and c) it's leaves need to be constantly dusted to ensure it that dust doesn't limit the amount of sunlight that gets absorbed! And what does the plant do when conditions aren't just right....it gets "stressed out" and sheds its beautiful leaves to indicate displeasure with it's host! Yes, only I would get a plant that gets "stressed out!"

So anyway here we are, me and my finicky fiddle! I figured that while in-country, the least I can do is take care of it as best as I can. With spring and summer coming through, I've moved it outside because despite everything I've mentioned (i.e. the plant hates to be moved), I don't think a tropical/temperate plant it's worthy of it's leaves if it can't survive being outside in the summer (of course I panicked because it was suppose to storm last night, brought it back inside then realized I was being overly protective and took it back outside this morning). And finally, I took the time, stepped up the stool and gently rubbed the dust off its leaves.

Anyway....moral of the story: don't be bamboozled by pretty plants in magazines or simply learn about a plant before you bring it into your life or don't buy finnicky plants!
{Photos: 1- Lonny; 2 + 3 - The Aestate; 4 - From the Right Bank}