More indoor growth

Last week I talked about the cactus that always seem to grow during the winter, regardless of how much light or water they get. Although I'm happy to see something growing at all during winter, my excitement is balanced by worry -- that winter growth won't be as "strong" as it will be once the plant moves back outside in the spring.

Today I'll show you something that I'm very excited about, no negative to balance it out: my fiddle-leaf fig.

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I've grown Ficus lyrata (fiddle-leaf fig) for at least 25 years, when a neighbor gave me two plants that would not be joining him on his move out of the apartments.

This in fact is one of those original two plants. It has supplied me with cuttings for countless new plants and since it doesn't get quite enough light in my house it gets a bit lanky and sparse. The solution is a drastic pruning every few years.

So that's what I did about a month ago: I pruned everything except a couple of leaves that were growing on a younger stem.

I've done this before but was a bit worried this time because I was a little more severe than usual. Then I moved the pot of sticks -- which is what it looked like -- from the garage into the warmer basement near some of the lights.

Fast-forward a few weeks (I've lost track of how many exactly, maybe four?) and my plan worked!

The plant is putting out more new growth than I've ever seen before...

...even way down at the bottom!

Where I've just discovered another mantis case:

It looks like an unhatched one but I'm not entirely sure. I suppose I'll put this into the refrigerator anyway and see what happens. Happy it hasn't hatched yet.

So glad to see the new growth too! I'll have to rotate this plant once every few days until I can bring it outdoors where it will get as much light as it wants.

Amazing that this old plant is still going strong!

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