Gettin' Figgy Wit' It

Sometimes bandwagons are a fun place to be.  Especially when they include visually pleasing plants that look almost fake (in the best way possible).  That's right, I've jumped on the fiddle leaf fig plant bandwagon and it's a great place to be!  That makes me an official design blogger now, right? I decided to be an overachiever and try and not kill TWO fiddle leaf fig plants.  Yes, TWO!  There's a story here- isn't there always with me?  Months ago when I was shopping for Millie's kitchen, I happened to be at IKEA when they actually had a small stock of their $13 fiddle leaf figs.  Since I figured I'd never buck up the money for a real sized plant, I went for the 2 foot tall man-handled IKEA plant.  When I left, I called my mom to see if she wanted me to pick her up one the next time I was at IKEA (the answer was yes, btw) and she started laughing.  Well, I might not have plans to buck up the money for a bigger plant, but she and my sister had already ordered me one for Christmas.  Way to ruin the surprise, Karen.

So first came Hector and he likes to hang out on the dresser in the bedroom.

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He's my IKEA dude and, admittedly, not doing so hot.  I over-watered him pretty badly right after getting him and he got mad and started throwing all his leaves at me.  Now he's slightly bald, but repotted in a new self-watering pot and much happier.  He even has a new leaf!

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This was a good lesson to learn on a cheap IKEA plant instead of the nicer, bigger, nursery plant that I got for Christmas.

His name is Victor.  He's a little fancier and started out healthier than Hector (that's what I'm going with.... It's clearly IKEA's fault that I almost killed Hector already)

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Look at those big, sexy leaves.  He's a gentleman and likes to hang out near Hubby's whiskey bar in the dining room.

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Victor isn't as tall as we were all hoping- apparently nurseries around the state of Massachusetts just can't get their hands on a 4 foot tall fiddle leaf fig (if you only knew how Mom tried).  Now I just need to NOT kill him so he can grow big and tall.

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He also got transplanted into a self-watering pot.  Over-watering is a mistake I plan on making only once.  I figure in this type of pot, I can water it regularly and if (when) I over water, the pots will have my back.  Side note: the not so pretty self-watering pots are sitting in much much prettier baskets from HomeGoods.  Not sure if these will be their permanent vessels, but I'm happy looking at them for now.

I've done a ton of research on how not to kill these guys (aka read lots of blogs with what worked and didn't work for other bloggers) but I would love any additional advice!  I'm not exactly known for having a green thumb......................... so I'll need all the help I can get!