Introducing....

 My rubber tree plant.  She's beautiful, isn't she?

I've had her for many, many years; probably around 20.  This is an accomplishment because, despite my fondness of plants, I am not particularly adept at keeping them alive.  When I was younger  I used to over-water all my plants and their roots would rot out.  Because of this, I've developed a habit of under-watering them.  This means that the only plants that survive at my house are the really hardy kind; the kind that can survive drought conditions.

My beautiful rubber tree plant is one of those hardy pieces of flora.

Now, we live in Minnesota, so the dear plant cannot be outside year-round.  It can, however, be brought out over the summer months.  During this time, my plant is VERY happy.  It gets the heat it desires, it gets watered more than once every two weeks. it gets lots of fresh air.  It's so happy that it grows and grows and grows!  This makes me happy :-)

This makes my husband unhappy :-(

You see, because we live in Minnesota, my dear rubber tree plant cannot STAY outside most of the year, so it stays in...my dining room.  Well, technically, it takes over my dining room because my rubber plant measures about nine feet wide, five feet deep and six feet tall.  In a dining room that is about 12 by 14, THE plant takes up....more than it's share of space.  Especially considering that we have a table in there that seats 10, as well.

About this time every year, my dear, sweet husband nicely requests that I "cut back" the rubber plant.  This is painful for me, as I hate cutting beautiful healthy branches off of plants.  It makes me...sad.  Most years, I cut back a teeny-tiny bit on the plant hoping to placate my wonderful husband.  And, bless his heart, despite the eye-rolling, he has never taken a knife to my tree on his own (I love you, dear!!!).

Well, this year my plant has done extremely well outside.  So well, that even I can see that it is NOT going to "fit" into the dining room in a few weeks.  So, this morning I steeled myself and took a knife and pruned my lovely tree down to a truly manageable size.  Sniff, sniff.

Here are the finished results...

You're welcome, Chris!