It’s easy enough to grow an outdoor fig and produce a thing of boundless vigour with handsome leaves, but if you want the fruit, which is rather the point, it needs to be taken in hand. The wise fig planter will have confined its roots in an underground chamber lined with paving slabs to encourage
it to think about fruiting. At this time of year, it needs pruning. Look at the new shoots and prune each back to four or five leaves. This will get it thinking along the right lines. The leaves will merely adorn your statues.
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