Can anyone tell me for sure that these so-called cold hardy fig trees almost always die to the ground over winter?    Has anyone had successes actually growing a real tree in these climate zones, as in one that keeps the trunk and doesn't start from the dirt each Spring.

I am thinking I mistook when nurseries say 'cold hardy tree' in this case, as it has never meant this before from my experience buying trees.

Thanks!

I live in zone 5, and even wrapped, some years they die pretty close to the ground. When people say your doing to much to protect the plants, do even more.

My grandmother had a fig plant several decades old that grew beside her farmhouse in Zone 5. She never covered it or anything, although in saying that, I suppose it was somewhat protected from the worst of the north winds by the detached garage even though the garage was several feet away. Anyway, the fig plant would die back to the ground each winter so despite it's age, it never did develop into an actual tree.  But each summer it never failed to bounce right back into a very, very large bush that would always be covered with the most delicious figs. I wish I could have gotten cuttings from it, but alas the plant was destroyed when the house burned to the ground (faulty old wiring they said) whilst I was still at University. 

I will probably try a few in the ground when I start growing extras from cuttings taken from my own plants (once my plants get big enough), but for now I will be keeping them in pots and overwintering them in the barn. 

As far as the dying to the ground approach, I assume as soon as it gets cold enough it drops all its leaves.... and then do you prune it down to the ground before winter, maybe put some mulch over what is left?  Or leave the stalks as-is and wait the following spring to see if anything is still alive.

Unfortunately the only real spot I have for an outdoor fig that gets adequate sun is out in front of the house, and I really need an actual tree there not a come-and-go-bush as whatever is in that spot serves as a much needed privacy hedge.    Without it you're looking down a row of 20 porches lol.