How Do I Get a Fiddle Fig?

To my designer friends, you know what a Fiddle Fig is.  To the rest of us, you may be wondering what is a Fiddle Fig.

A few months ago I was looking at some design magazines, trying to get some ideas for our dining room re-do and I kept seeing a plant.  Not any plant but a beautiful tree with large, pretty leaves.  To which I said to my husband, “I want one of these but I don’t know what it is.”  Being the plant/flower lover that I am, I started researching and discovered that this lovely specimen was a Fiddle Fig or Ficus Lyrata.  I then started on a mission to find one for purchase.  They’re not especially easy to find…at least not in Columbia, SC.  None of our nurseries have this beautiful plant so I resulted to the world wide web.  Surely I could find one there.

Indeed.  They’re everywhere!  It more depends on the size of your budget.  Mine, as you might recall isn’t very large right now so after my eyes bulged out at some of the $140+ prices I thought, surely there’s got to be one somewhere that’s more reasonable.  I found ebay and Home Depot.  Not my local Home Depot but online.  I was nervous about purchasing a plant online…wondering, is it going to be half-dead when I get it?  How do I know that the person who picks my plant will do so with the same thoughts in mind that I would have if I were choosing the best one?

Oh, get over yourself and buy the stinking plant, Michelle.  So I did.  Last week.  And they (I bought 2 because 1 just wasn’t enough) arrived Monday, straight from Florida.

I knew they were on their way, but I’d just forgotten about them until I’d gotten home and the doorbell rang.  I went to the front door, wondering which neighbor had stopped by, only to find my husband standing there.  Ha!  Upon opening the door he joyfully said, “Fiddle Fig?!”  I laughed and instantly became giddy.  I was giddy over a plant.

So we brought these beauties inside and like a kid at Christmas, I tore into the boxes to get my plants out as quickly as I could.

They’re beautiful.  Now, to find a pretty pot to put them in and figure out where they’re going to live.