Your right Akram, in past i have thought about my small amount of figs and even asked my daughter if she would grow them one day and her reply was she is not sure cause they are a lot of work in our cold climate.
What would happen to mine if i suddenly passed like some of my immediate family members have in past ?
I think my figs would probably die as well, no one eats them but me and daughter.
Its sad but i see that can happen.
On another note i have decent Lionel collection and i asked same question to my 2 kids who are not interested in them and they said they would sell them.
Indeed life is precious and can be short for some. We all have that 1 thing in common we cannot escape.......
Thanks for posting that today.

Ottawan,

I am not all that old, but not a youngster anymore, either. I have thought about that from a slightly different perspective. I still don't have enough documentation of what I have and where it is. I know it all, and have the records, but they are not ready for someone else to use. I made progress this year, but it would still be a real detective job for someone to figure it all out. And, then, there is the website, Figs 4 Fun. Who would take it over, and maintain it? Who would add to it and improve it? I am sure I am prejudiced, but I think it would be a shame to see it disappear.

My wife would not be able to keep up with all of the plants, and the kids wouldn't want the plants, so they would need new homes. How do you figure that all out? set up a donation to UC Davis, or some other collection? How do you get them there? Turn the property into a botanical garden or foundation? Where does that money come from?

That is part of why it is so important to duplicate things in various places - trading cuttings and such - to share.

Hope someone has some wisdom on this subject.

I also have thought what would happen to my fig orchard if anything happen to me.  My kids do not want them. My wife will not want to take care of them.  When I get to old to live in my house. If I have to move into a senior care facility ( moving in with kids).  I guess I will have to bull dose my fig trees down.  There are not too many people that would want 50 fig trees in their front  yard.  I am hoping I will drop dead and let my kids take care of the bull dosing. 

Vern

Jon,
you said "Hope someone has some wisdom on this subject."
The only wisdom I can think of is to be realist/pragmatic and enjoy it for as long as it lasts since it was started as a personal hobby anyway.

I agree with all of the comments.  It is good that Akram was empathetic with the orchid grower and offered help. We all hold things that are very important to us and of no interest to someone else, more especially family members.  It is sometimes frustrating and fruitless (no pun intended) to make them interested.  Sharing with interested friends and with forum members makes it worhwhile.  I am with Vern on the dropping dead and the kids having the trees bulldosed. On my plot of land, I got fig trees planted next to the house, garage, barn, wellhouse, pasture fence and along the forest line.  Maybe they will last long enough for another generation to become interested.

I also would like to add this.
I grew up eating figs it was from my grandmothers tree, dad used to eat figs as a kid but never had a tree until he moved to Florida and it was late in his life. I never had a plant until 8 years back.
Perhaps sometimes things go in a circle and some of our children when they reach our age might consider it for some reason or another like what i described above, who knows it wont be us.
The way i figure it there are SPECIAL things that our kids will treasure from us such as a pocket watch and old clock, or some other momento . I have my grandfathers italian ocean liner he built from scratch he made 1 for each of his sons and dad always had it in the basement and it got banged up but i 1 day will personally restore it for its a beautiful ocean liner called "conte di savioa"
i looked at pictures and its amazing the detail that he duplicated it was sunk in WW2, it must have been very time consuming to make 4 of these as its almost 2 foot long and even has small lifeboats all handmade it does light up and look spectacular at night. This must be passed on as a family heirloom and not sold is my hope it cannot be replaced like a plant.
So i suppose in short certain things forum  family members will treasure as for plants they can be replaced 1 day if forum members children 1 day get a spark and decide to get into growing figs such as i did.
Sometimes like the ole saying things go in a circle.
Best Health

My sister is my estate's executive. She loves figs but not to my level of obsession. She knows which 3-5 trees to keep. Since all are in pots she has instructions to contact the forums first with offers for a new home, lucky you! After that if any are left she can sell or give them to local nurseries. Just don't count your chickens before they hatch...I aien't THAT old yet! ;-)

I try to give figs away to friends at work and church, even those who have never tried them. Some become interested and come back for more varieties. Some older people remember having them when they were young but would not buy them (as they think they are too old). So maybe some of mine will live on after me.

Scott

This is a very thoughtful topic. I'd like to add a bit to it, if I may.

My collection of figs is not vast like some of y'all have, but for many years I have been collecting unusual varieties when I come across them and can afford them. I have some trees that are huge. My Green Ischia is probably 15' tall and at least 20' wide, for example. If something happened to me, I know that my husband wouldn't want to care for all my figs (the ones in the ground and potted) and I wouldn't want him to feel like he had to. I would want him to enjoy his own hobbies. At the same time, I'd like to think someone, somewhere, would want some of my trees and would properly care for them. 

Something else I have thought about many times is the fact that there are some very large, old fig trees around, and when I see one on an abandoned property I think that someone, probably decades ago, planted it and enjoyed it's fruit. Makes me hope that when I'm gone, maybe whoever ends up with this property will get a lot of pleasure from my trees.

I have a story to share also.

I spoke with a member named Ricky who lives about an hour north of me here in GA.  He has several varieties.

He had two things bad happen to him:  His mother had some nice figs planted around her property.  One of them, which you can find info about on GW/FF, he called "gypsy", it was small, purple, sounded similar to Negronne/VdB, but had some things that made it different.  It was planted right by her barn.  When she passed, his brother bulldozed the barn at the property and took out the tree with it.  He might've mentioned some other details, but I wanted cuttings from that tree, and that was what happened to it.

The other tragedy he shared - he has figs all over his property.  He had a plant map, and I guess someone asked about his figs and wanted to borrow his planting map and she never brought it back.  Now he has no idea what any of his figs are.  He reminded me to tag well and always keep a backup of your landscape plan!!

Nice, interesting fella to talk to.  One of these days I'm going to take him up on his offer to head up to visit and maybe take some cuttings or suckers back with me.

Sue,

I can arrange for you to have an accident, tomorrow, maybe something involving a pruning saw or loppers?!

Satellite, I am pretty sure your Ricky is a fellow I got cuttings and plants from 6-7 years back. He was from GA, and I lost track of him, but saw his name somewhere, the other day. Might be a small world. I have a small Gypsy (through a different source) - so you might see cuttings one day - remind me in a year.

My wife and I were having the same conversation about my birds.
She wanted to know what she should do with them if I went before her?
I said to give or sell them to my fellow bird keepers.
So I will have to write down the names and numbers for her.
On the flip side, I just picked up another pair of birds tonight.
A pair of "Blue faced parrot finches" .
One always needs to be prepared as much as possible.
You never know?
Jerry

Ok!  Yes, this may be the same person, this is his GW profile, if it helps?   https://auth.gardenweb.com/members/pokeberry

I searched high and low and I can't find his post talking about this fig for the life of me.  It's really kicking my butt, I swear it was there a few months ago.  All I remember is it had black skin, pink interior.  I don't think it's the same as Zingarella ("lil gypsy").

Well guys, I still have about 50 years left of figgin'. I was the youngest but then Americanfigboy beat me!

If you guys need me to, leave the figs to me in your wills. (wink wink wink ) I will race around the country giving orphaned trees loving homes and telling stories about the original growers. It makes me very sad to think of any fig orchard bull dozed! I am lucky enough to have caught my kids young enough where they have asked me to help with my trees (3 kids). My grandparents, and parents all used to sell at farmers market and have taken the grand kids with them, lest they forget we come from a family of farmers and ranchers. My son even has his own pruners (my old ones which barely work). We are building my fig orchard this year on our 1 acre using a well to water my trees. I dont get to taste many of the figs because my kids water my trees every morning in the summers and now my 5 year old as she tells me waits until they are squishy and picks a fig and eats it in one movement. My youngest asked if he could get his own trees and maybe sell figs at farmers market.

My wife is on the look out for irrigatable land now! She wants a mons-serrat type orchard and gave the OK for a large greenhouse.Unfortunately, I have more ideas than money.

So far I have met Richard Watts, Jon Verdick and blessed to have Leon just about live down the road or a phone call away.

Im hoping to be able to visit Gene and Ed Arena one of these days. I can start saying that I have meet many of the fig greats. To bad I got into figs after Belleclaires, I would have backed up a semi truck to them!

The funny part that would make my grandfather laugh if he were still with us is that I hated farm/ranch life when younger, but now I can call my dad and throw ideas of of him when it comes to agriculture. Looks like they (parents) werent as stupid as I thought they were not to mention me not as smart as I thought I was.

Jose,

I grew up in the garden - just a large family garden, nothing commercial. But as a kid, you couldn't get me near a fig tree in my grandfather's orchard. Most disgusting fruit on earth. I guess I have gotten over that.