After reading Saskatchewan's November 6th entry, I discovered that I also have devil’s ivy growing in several pots. I’m already one step closer to my goal of learning the names of my plants. Once my neighbor came over and said, "Oh, you have some sort of ivy growing!" to which I replied, "No, I think it’s a philodendron." See, I told you I have everyone fooled.
Anyway, what I really wanted to talk about is about my beloved ficus tree (watch, after all these years I’ll find out it’s something else).
I’ve had my ficus tree for three years. It used to belong to the lady who lived in the first house we rented when we moved to Texas. From what I heard, it was huge! When she moved she gave it to the next door neighbors. They had a much smaller and darker house and had to cut it back to get it to fit in their family room. These neighbors moved also and they gave the tree to me. It must have gone into shock or something because by the time I got it, it looked like the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. It was pathetic.
I took really good care of it and it showed its gratitude by dropping most of its leaves. We only lived in that house for a year and the next house we rented was a lot smaller. There was no room inside for the tree, so I had to leave it outside under a covered patio. My tree must have fallen in love with its new digs because it came back to life. It loved being outside in the Texas humidity. I put it in a bigger pot and it got bigger. I put it in even a bigger pot and nearly broke my back. It became huge and nearly took up the whole patio space.
I loved this tree. When cold fronts would come down from Canada, I would drag it into the garage so it wouldn’t freeze (this was before it got huge). I would be outside at 2 am during a thunderstorm to pick it up after it was blown over and push it against the house so it wouldn’t get blown over again. If this isn’t devotion (not to mention brave as I could’ve been struck by lightning, you know!) then I don’t know what is.
Last winter it was too big to drag into the garage. I couldn’t cover it and it partially froze. I had to cut back my tree after that and I nearly cried. Would my tree go into shock and croak? We bought a house in February of this year (I swear, this is the last time I’m moving!) and my husband wanted to know why I insisted on dragging a "dead" tree with me. I told him it would bounce back and he looked at me like I was crazy.
I guess my tree loved me back because it didn’t die and started to get new leaves. It doesn’t look nearly as good as it once did and winter is rapidly approaching. I do have room for it in my house now, but some fire ants have made it their home and one time I had a stink bug living in it. So I’ll just leave it outside, try to cover it, and hope for the best.
Do you have a favourite plant that has sentimental value? Brag about it in the forums
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