Well hello and happy Friday! I'm back today to talk about one of my favorite ways to decorate our home and it's not with a typical accessory. I've talked about using plants as decor before and I love them so much I'm going to keep talking!
Years ago the fiddle leaf tree became THE plant -- it was so trendy. I usually avoid trends purely just because they are popular and then start incorporating them when they aren't cool anymore. But the fiddle, that has staying power. I don't know where it was all that time before but oh how I love it!
I did some research before I got my first plant and was a little nervous -- they can be finicky for some. I spent a pretty penny on my first one and it immediately stuck out it's tongue at me in the form of dropping nearly every single leaf.
Soon I figured out exactly what they like…water and sun, can you believe it? They LOVE sun. Here is my first fiddle after I started nursing it back to life:
And here it is now:
Not a ton taller but much fuller. Considering it was nearly bare a couple years ago, this is progress! This is by far my slowest growing one.
I love their full, dark green leaves. When the leaf is new it grows in very light green and it's much thinner than the others:
I shared how I've had success caring for these plants here and a very unusual way to make the leaves shine. :)
I've had a larger leaf version in our master bathroom till recently -- I moved it to a new spot in the bedroom and so far it's done really well there:
It's only been a few weeks though -- I have a feeling it will need more light but we'll see.
I know lots of people find these at IKEA and I finally came across one a couple years ago but it was in bad shape -- I had removed most of the burnt/dead leaves when I took this photo:
This guy LOVES this spot with direct sun. Look at him now!:
I've found fiddle leaf plants at IKEA, Home Depot and at my local nursery. The large leaf versions are at IKEA and HD -- and if you can't find them in your local Home Depot look online -- last I checked they sell them there for around $15, which is a great deal compared to nurseries.
One day last summer I was in my favorite home decor shop/nursery in Indianapolis and came across a different version that I loved -- they call it the small leaf fiddle:
I've never seen these with such small leaves anywhere else but I loved the look, of course.
They offered it to me for half price because it wasn't doing great -- even though it looked pretty good to me! But soon after I got it home the leaves that were half dead started falling -- so it was definitely on it's way out. Now it's growing much taller but it's not as full:
The thing about these is if they lose leaves at the bottom (or I guess anywhere?) they don't grow back in that spot. So like with this one that lost most of it's bottom leaves, it will stay bare down there. It sprouts from the top only. I guess that's normal for a plant? I don't know.
But my favorite fiddle? The DEAL of the CENTURY (echo echo echo…) was the huge one I found for our living room. Here it is last summer:
That same nursery where I found the small leaf version had this one and they had the price knocked down from $130 to $30!! Wowza. Again, it didn't look to be in too bad of shape but about a third of the leaves had started dying (and subsequently fell off).
I was really hoping I could save it -- the height and fullness was just what that corner needed! Six months later it's doing beautifully! A teensy bit less full but it's grown at least a foot:
I love plants and have many of them, but I've actually found the fiddle leaf to be the easiest to grow. I water well once a week and put them in a sunny spot (either direct or indirect) and they eat it up. That's all! I really think the sun is the key with these plants. If you've had problems with them I would suggest moving to a sunny spot -- I don't think they can get too much light.
Have you tried one of these trendy beauties? I love their fullness and how they fill up a space so well. Every time I find one for around $15 or cheaper I grab it and find somewhere to put it. I'm a sucker for plants in general -- they are the perfect finishing touch as far as accessories go, and as you can see the bigger ones are great space fillers.
The only question -- what do I do when they get too tall? Do you prune them? I don't know! Thankfully it will be years before I have to figure it out!
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