Oh, Ficus, My Ficus!

This is our beautiful ficus tree! Darren has reminded me that he has had this tree for longer than he has known me, but it is most definitely ours because I have helped move it a dozen times or so and saved its leafy butt from abandonment. 

I love this tree, and I love that my husband has filled our house with dozens of plants that add to our home's beauty. He is the green thumb, and spends lots of time watering and re-potting and adjusting pots so that every plant is getting enough sunshine.

Back to the ever-present ficus, which has always taken a supporting role in our living room decor. As we were trying to pack all of our belongings to move from Phoenix, Darren decided that we would have to leave the tree behind. He had already filled his small car with plants, and the ficus was too big. We were already leaving behind some pots of lesser plants, and I just couldn't imagine leaving our tree behind, so I grabbed an appliance box and convinced Darren that we had to try to pack it. We fit it in the box, but I had to cut away at a lot of the limbs to make it fit. Then it got loaded onto a dark truck. 

We should have gotten the truck and the tree in 3-5 days, but instead half the truck, including the tree (and our bed, couches and LOTS of other stuff) was left to sit in a parking lot in Vegas. The truck with the tree didn't arrive to us in Columbus for another 12 weeks (that's right: weeks!). We long ago gave up hope that the hacked up, boxed up, baked in a truck, un-watered ficus survived. 

But miraculously, it did! He didn't look altogether great, but it was most definitely alive! Fast forward five years to our most recent move, and Mr. Ficus was looking a bit poorly. Darren left it outside in the shade for the whole summer. When we brought it inside, the ficus was glorious again and really big. We couldn't figure out how to fit it into the living room (or anywhere else), so we did what anyone would do for their plant (yeah, right!) and rearranged the entire room. Now the plant looks great, and the room looks great, too!

(Here's a reminder of the 'old' living room... doesn't it look so much better now?)