Well, this past January we had the biggest freeze I have ever seen here in South Central Texas. For two nights in a row, the temperature dipped below 20°F (totally unheard of in this part of the country). Even though I covered my precious plant with TWO sheets, it froze and appeared quite dead. I really was devastated, but I kept these feelings mum. "It's just a plant."
On a visit to my parents' house over Memorial Day weekend, I discovered my mom's rubber tree plant suffered the same fate. BUT! her plant is making a startling comeback. My dad was ready to dump it when, lo and behold!, new leaves were spotted amongst the deadness. I resolved to check on mine (again) when I returned home.
Before Memorial Day weekend, Ken had dropped the huge (and heavy) dead plant off the deck (about 6-7 feet) to the ground so he could dump it out and recycle the pot for something new. For some strange reason, he didn't dump it right away. Instead, he set the pot out of the way under the oak tree to deal with it later. When I returned from my parents' house, I slowly went out to look. I was not very hopeful because I had already looked at it over and over for months hoping for any sign of life. What's this? It's Alive! I saw a very tiny (and I mean tiny) green leaf sprouting from the side of a seemingly dead branch at the very base of the plant. What in the world took it so long? No matter because I was beyond thrilled at this discovery! I trimmed down all the dead branches, and I moved the plant back to the porch so I could give it a lot of love and watch it carefully. Yes, my special rubber tree plant is still alive!
Here is a before and after picture so that you can see how amazing and full it looked before the "big freeze of 2010." It still looks amazing because life always finds a way!
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