I live in southeast Virginia. I grow 7 varieties and always look for old/mature fig trees in yards, old farmsteads, or the wild. Celeste is the most common, and it's not uncommon to see 20' tall bushy Celeste fig trees. Brown Turkey is also common, but I think mostly because it is available at all the big box garden stores. I recently spotted a large fig tree in Newport News. I asked the owner about it and he said it was a Brunswick fig tree his father planted 60+ years ago. It was loaded with figs. The hand-shaped leaves made it jump out as I was driving by. Here is a link that might be useful: .09 Acres Blog

Ross, you have inherited a plant that has not lately been given sufficient sun....the one long limb (or branch) is way over what the other part of the plant has done. First, you should, before you do anything, learn about why plants should be transplanted into different sized pots and why you should not go up more than one size at any one time. But, consider this: you are 6 feet tall, weigh 200 lbs. You eat usually an average meal including meat and potatoes, vegetables and dessert. You eat only what you feel you wish to at any one meal, then you push yourself away from the table to relax and digest what yuo just ate. Consider another possible way of enjoying your dinner. You sit down and the meal is placed in front of you. You eat it...and are satisfied and attempt to push away from the table. Ugh, ugh, you have to sit there and eat another....then another, then another....then another... you get the idea. That is what you would be doing to your plant if you put it into a container too large for the roots to properly take noourishment from. The roots cant push themselves away...they extend outward in the large mass of soil where they continue to absorb nutrients....and water. If the soil mass is very large, they soon are unable to take up more....they lose this ability and even when they are hungry, are not able to drink or eat. Hence the reason why plants are suggested/recommended to be given new sized pots only one size up until such time they have outgrown that...and need a further one size up. They are able to absorb the nutrients from as much asoil as the roots allow...and no more. You don't say just where you live; if you experience cold winters. I suspect you live in a warmer clime, hence the reason why the plant has reached such an age. For such a plant you certainly don't want to do something drastic. One of the easiest methods of securing a plant is by taking cuttings from the mother plant. I suggest you do this. Take many cuttings as the plant allows while still protecting the mother plant as a viable growing geranium. Geraniums, when cuttings are taken, usually devlop roots within 10 days to two weeks. Geraniums over-wintered. cuttings: snip the cutting at 3" long and put on a sunny window sill. Let them stay for two days there to harden off. Then, dip the cutting into a "root hormone" (either powder or gel) and put them into a mixture of sand and vermiculite. Water well and it will develop roots. Transplanting to a container (pot) later or put them directly outdoors. Only take cuttings from healthy plants. If any part is sickly, you are best to cut it out and not use for cuttings. If you live in a northern zone there is another method of wintering the entire plant but certain requiremesnts must be met. Geranium is a very easy plant to divide if you wished to separate it into two or more plants. This can depend on just how good a health is the plant and its roots.

Dear ccbay, I can relate to the picture thing. My DH would never put up a picture of the ex who left him for another man. However SS would. Yes, shortly after DH and I purchased our home together SS who lived with us(who was 17 y.o. at the time)came with a large high school graduation picture of bio mom. This had just been given to him by bio mom. SS displayed the picture near the main door of his bedroom for everyone to see as they walked by. DH's Mom (SS grandmother) and family came to visit and questioned why it was up. I just shrugged and said SS brought it and left it at that. The next time DH's Mom (my dear mother-in-law) came to visit she gave me DH large graduation picture and baby picture, which I display near the main door in my bedroom for all to see. I guess it is better to say nothing and pray that if one turns the other check only good things can happen to that person and others will see the real truth. I would be hurt by what your DH is doing. I know I was hurt by my SS actions, but then realized that bio mom had something to do with it. Also, SS was having mix emotions as stepkids do. Hang it there and talk with your DH on what your needs our, realize he is have some emotional problems, and say many prays. That is what I do. Good luck, louisedawn

Well Momof5angels, can I share my touchy pictures-of-mom-and-dad story? I have the same situation, except it's not one picture, it's a bedroom full of pictures like this. Childhood pictures of the three of them, or pictures and drawings of just her mom. I think I'd be more understanding if (from all their accounts, I've never met her) she was a loving wonderful mom. They tell me she was/is a drunk, a user, a seller, and had several BFs behind dad's back. One of SD's complaints is that her BM would come home from work, go to her room and ignore all 3 of her children. Dad made major life changes and wanted his then wife to clean up her act too. She didn't want to leave her BF and partying ways, so he divorced her and they shared custody. (Only the SD is his. Other 2 were fathered by someone else.) Five years later, I enter the picture. Dad has since gained full custody of his then 14 year-old daughter. It was SD's choice to leave mom's filthy, unkept house where the live-in BF hung around drinking all day. Well, my custody arrangement w/ my ex requires that I live in my current town. I let my then-just-dating guy know this immediately and he let his daughter know she'd have to choose whether to live with us (4 hours away) or stay at her mom's. BM flipped out! She threatened to have a friend of hers come over to the dad's apartment (while we were house hunting) and rape her own daughter to punish her for even thinking of moving away! What kind of mom threatens her own daughter to have some thug rape her as punishment? Well, SD decided to come live with us. (14 then, 19 years old now.) I know it's hard to leave your home town and move away from friends! (I'm a former military wife, moved 20+ times over 9 years!)We made all sorts of accomodations to try to ease her pain of having to move away: taking her back for every school holiday and summers to visit her friends and family. (Expensive!) Unlimited Internet and cell phone access to her friends/family. I certainly don't expect SD to deny her past! I want her to treasure the happy moments, like we all do from our childhood. BUT! We all eventually move on into adulthood. I was a professional photographer and we have TONS of current photos of all sorts of family functions. I do scrapbooking, painting, collages, sewing etc. and have let her know she can invite friends over from her new school or our new congregation for any of these or other activities, but no. For the first 2 years of our marriage she spent her free time online or talking to all her old friends w/very little effort to make "new memories" to hang on the wall. I talked with my husband letting him know I appreciate we all have previous memories to treasure, but she seemed stuck in "Little Girl Land" and was in denial. We had a discussion with her once to encourage her to do things with us, make new friends, start taking the steps to becoming a young lady. She bawled (literally) about "not having a childhood." She was 18 then and had no plans regarding her future. A job? College? Move out eventually? I'm just the meanie "not letting her have a relationship w/ her dad." Our parent-child relationships evolve over time. She was 18 then w/graduation just weeks away and it still hadn't dawned upon her to make plans for schooling or employment!It's not that she doesn't know, it's that she doesn't want to learn ... at least not from me! I was stunned. Oh yeah, you had a childhood, I told her. Unfortunately, it was pretty crappy since your BM neglected all 3 kids! (So why is she the one STILL adorning the walls?) I try to be understanding that since BM didn't teach SD any personal hygiene skills or etiquette, it isn't automatic. But, I ask my husband, she's been living with you for 4 years now. So why does she still belch w/o saying 'excuse me'? Spit phlegm out the window? Take food of my plate? Keep her room in total disarray? I'm "the bad guy" for expecting her to not sleep in till noon, take a shower and be presentable every day, (not just when we'll go to services), further her education so she can become self-sufficient some day, and bother to include us in her major life decisions? I'm the one driving her back and forth twice a day to two different schools so she can take foreign language classes, to doctor appointments, etc. I don't WANT to replace her mother. I want her to learn from my varied experience, not criticize my cooking, home decorating, etc. I love her dad, and she's part of him. I guess it must be crappy to have to accept that your mom is a disappoint. Maybe she feels she'll be disloyal to mom if she likes me? I wonder this because now she does do things with other people here. And I mean other people MY age(40), not just with other teens. She goes to their house to watch movies, eat dinner, etc. I ask her dad, how does letting her do this promote family unity? Sure, I think these other women are great friends to have, but now even they replace me and take her to functions I should. They'll have some congregation event and my SD, not me, is the one invited to share a dish. Am I the wife, or is she? Example: I recently invited my husband to go to bed early for once, so we wouldn't be so tired for our "private time." His response? "When do I get to spend any time with (SD)?"(They spend hours watching movies together almost every night of the week!) Anyway, I'm going on and on ... guess it's not just the pictures of "Mommy Dearest" still on the wall that bother me. BTW, I am also a high school teacher and deal with some pretty rough teenagers every day. My students send me cards, give me hugs (nothing inappropriate) and say "thank you" for sharing life's hard lessons. My husband's response to discomfort over walls of BM photos? "It's her room." Excuse me? If my 18 year-old or 9-year-old hung a photo of their father, or our former family, in "their" room, I would talk with them about part of healing is moving on. My girls' dad left me for another woman, has since left her and is now shacking up with a third. (I only hear this through the grapevine, I don't ask!)So does he have a place in my home? No. In their lives, yes. Hang those pictures on your apartment walls, not my house. I gave my ex tons of family photos to give to our daughters, but no, those will not hang on the walls of where my current husband is to be respected. Am I being too sensitive? What do you all think? THANKS! No one I know personally understands this from their own experience.