Thank you for your replies! Yes, -21c during transfer, 19c in the house though can be drafty by the windows (old structure). It was placed by the air intake for the photo - but I will be mindful not to place near heat vents in the future.

I hope she makes it through the winter, and I'll repot in more favourable conditions.

Umm, negative 21c (-5F) is COLD! How long was the plant exposed to those temps? You shouldn’t expose these Ficus trees to anything under 50°F.

Hi Dave! Just on route from the store to the car in the parking lot. The commute in the car itself was only 10min, and not as chilly as outside, obviously. I do think there may be a draft by the window it was in front of as well - old structure. Will have to rearrange the room to find a better spot for the FLF, should it ever recover.

Greetings to you in beautiful Prince Edward Island.

I'll put my two cents worth in and say I'm virtually 100% sure the cold the fig was exposed to during the transfer home is what's 'doing it in'. (I believe 'Jean' nailed it in her first post.) You didn't mention, but I'm guessing the plant was not wrapped up at all after buying it, and it was just 'naked' as you took it to your car. Sure death.

In such cold, plants need to have two kinds of wrapping: 1. lots of paper around the whole thing, including the pot, (stapled shut all over the paper wrapping) and 2. a tight seal of plastic (huge bag or well sealed sheets of plastic) around the paper layer. Even with this, the transporting vehicle needs to be pre-warmed up and waiting close to the door of the store/greenhouse when you bring it out.

Two things: 1) Even the briefest exposure to real cold (particularly -21c) will effectively kill off, at minimum, all the growth above ground. The roots might have survived, as alluded to by 'Jean'. 2) The plant's ride home in a cold car continued the assault. Even if the car warmed up quite quickly, at such cold temps, the interior goes down to way below zero (celcius) in a matter of minutes when parked, so that the leaves were still freezing for a while even after getting into the vehicle.

When I was in university, a fellow student lugged a HUGE, beautiful houseplant from one building to another in the dead of winter without any wrapping/protection. It wasn't outside more than about 45 seconds. Dead in a few days :(

I'll add that your concerns about its welfare in your drafty old house are inconsequential in comparison. The south window sounds ideal. These ficusses (ficii?) like lots of light.

Do, however, make sure there's no hot air from a furnace vent blowing directly on it. I fried one side of my 'lemon cypress' earlier this winter when I didn't pay attention that its summer position put it in the direct path of the furnace vent by that garden door.

as others told you its probably the cold during transfer.

additional it could be cold drafts from a window /hot drafts from heating and not enough sunlight.

for the first, its done. for the second two you could change something.

i have a question for the more knowledgeable:

at this point what can be done about the plant?

cut the dying leafs? cut all of them? cut the stem? trim the affected parts? leave it as it is?