Too Little, Too Late

I have given more than enough leeway on this one, for 5 years I have patiently waited for luscious figs to populate the expensive, garden center, store bought plant. The first year was filled with anticipation, the plant grew beautifully during the late spring and summer months. During the winter it died back leaving no trace of the plant above the mulch line. I was told not to fear, for that was the nature of figs, they are expected to die back only to come back much stronger after getting their roots established.
Springtime in the second year came and sure enough the fig did send up growth. A twig about a foot tall and leaves popped out, but no fruit set on the spindly stalk. When winter set in, it died back to the mulch line, again.
One year, I did actually get a fig, it was about the size of a large marble and I may be exaggerating the size even at that point. In late September, after a killing frost, I ate the little, hard marble. It was simply terrible, but I wanted to be able to say that I had a fig off my very own tree. (Pride can be a stupid thing.) And the plant died back to the ground again last winter.
This spring, I was gifted with some twigs off a very prolific tree that lives in a friends yard. They are potted and hanging out in one of the rows of blueberries where they get plenty of water and enough shade in the hot afternoons to promote growth.
These potted twigs have surprising growth already more than a foot tall with beautiful leaves.
This is more growth than I have ever seen from the pathetic specimen that I have been babying along for 5 long years. I plan to plant this beauty into the space where my sad little figgy had failed since I have that space designated already. Every time I walk past the mulched spot I scoff at the wasted time spent urging the dud of a fig.
To my surprise, at the very tail end of June, figgy reappeared!
This sad sack looks tiny next to the few bunches of sorrel that have taken up residence in the plot, but my 5 year old fig is still alive much to my surprise.
Sorry buddy, but this is definitely too little and too late for my patience to allow such a pathetic show of will and this doesn’t change my plans for replacement.