05/19/2026
I got to the office early this morning and spent some time with my plant friends, including potting some fiddle leaf figs I propagated after aggressively trimming my super overgrown sparse plant. My old neighbor rescued the original tree from the curb and had it in their house for a while before passing it on to me. Since then it’s moved through a couple offices with me. It was at least 6 feet tall, you couldn’t miss this buddy.
Each winter it drops leaves and then each spring it grows back stragglier. After this last winter it looked really rough. I really thought it was going to die if I *didn’t* try something. So I cut off the few healthy green parts hoping to save what I could, while feeling approximately 87% sure I might be doing this plant in.
Instead? I ended up with new baby plant and sprouts popping out of the trunk I left behind. Those sprouts on the otherwise dead looking stick of a plant were a genuine surprise and brought me so much joy.
There’s probably a lesson here. Sometimes the scary thing isn’t taking the risk but staying the same when something clearly isn’t working. Sometimes what feels like cutting things back is actually making room for something new.
Or maybe the lesson is: go for it! get the bangs to heal your breakup? 😂 I don’t know. The lesson can be whatever you need it to be.
