I am so happy to report that Fiona the Fiddle Leaf Fig is doing very well. She stayed in her container from the store for far, far too long. After I got a good sized pot to plant it in and more soil, I broke my feet/ankles. Malcolm replanted Fi a few weeks ago now, and she has definitely acclimated. I wanted to share the progress and before and afters because I’m just so proud of Fiona. If you haven’t read the first daily delight I wrote about her, click here to get caught up.

Let’s look at some photos of Fi right after I brought her home to remind us what she looked like then.

These photos below are about two months after I bought it.

She was only $20 dollars at Walmart which is why I purchased her in the first place. Fiddles are so hard to find at a decent price, especially if they are in condition and are mature. After a quick dusting of her leaves, she shone, as you can see in the photo above.

Look at her now! Five months after I got her.

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You may notice she’s got a few leaves with brown spots. From the research I’ve done, that means that the soil is too moist. Those leaves budded that way before she was under my care which you can barely make out on the first photo (the baby leaves that are sprouting). Even if leaves look like this, I am leaving them because Fiddle Leaf Figs do not regenerate leaves where there was a previous leaf that fell or got pulled off. Unless the leaf is just damaged pitiful, I’ve been leafing (amirite?!) them.

We used a this self watering pot from Target. This isn’t an ad, but I recommend these planters because they are good quality at a very fair price. I was confused about the “self watering” part at first, but after a quick Google search, we understood it much better. There is a removable base on the planters that holds water, much like the traditional saucers and whatever you put underneath your plants to catch the drainage. You can remove to dump out some water, but I leave it for about a week because the deepest soil/roots have access to the water in the bottom compartment. When it’s time to change the water, I use the water in the bottom to water other plants. (If you leave the water in for a long time, it will start to get goopy, so I’d suggest checking once a week to once every two weeks.

I bought these planters in white, black, and pink. I just love them so much.

** Expert tip: if the leaves on your Fiddle are rustling in a draft or wind, they do not like it. They like a stable environment that is draft-less.

Have you tried a Fiddle Leaf Fig yet? If not, I’d love to read what’s stopping in you the comments below.

xoMaegan