Here is one of the Celestes that I have been picking over the past few weeks.  This came from a cutting that GRamaley gave me not even a year ago.  

This one was ripe, but I have let a few others stay on the tree until they are little more wrinkly.  The ones that were more ripe had a stronger fig flavor.  This one had a bit milder flavor, but the taste of nectarine really came through.  It was kind of strange, if I closed my eyes, I would have sworn that I was eating a nectarine.  It was soft with relatively no seed crunch.  I can only imagine that this will get better with time.  

I grow this tree in a 7 gal nursery container and it has been a heck of a producer so far.  I will be putting it in the ground soon, can't wait until next year.  Thanks Gloria.  

 
 
 

Very nice, thanks for sharing.

Best,
Tam

Nice work! I'm very happy that you were able to get fruit so soon and thanks for sharing the pictures and description (Nectarine? Yes!!!) I have a few growing from the same source (just graduated to their 5-gallons) but still have some time so go before giving us anything back.
GRamaley: THANK YOU!

Keep Growing,

Hope my Celeste taste like nectarines!  Thanks for sharing. :) 

Well Charlie if it doesn't let me know and I will send you cuttings from this one...

Are you guys getting any figs dropping from the Celeste from Gloria or are they holding on well until picked?

Oh, and by the way, nice work Mike!

I also have several little trees started from Gloria's Celeste cuttings + started from air layers from those plants. They are a healthy bunch. I haven't allowed any to keep fruit yet. 

Has anyone grown this particular Celeste in southern California yet? My wife met a friend who likes figs, so I wanted to give her a tree. I have multiple backups of Celeste and LSU Purple. However, I don't want to give her a gift of a tree that isn't likely to make excellent fruit in this area. Anyone around here have one long enough to try the fruit?

The fruit reminds me of the Celeste trees I am growing in Houston.  These are the parent trees for Jon's accession # 2419 (AA001) and #2222 (2BJS)
   
 

The only issue with splitting or dropping was in July of 2007 when it rained in Houston for 45 days.

 
The stuff that looks like someone sneezed on the leaf below is the guts of the fig.

m5allen  The fruit looks like my "celeste dark" that throws 90% violet/brown colored figs. I have one that gives 99% golden/brown figs and it's called plain old "Celeste". I also have "Blue Celeste" but there is only a slight difference between all 3 and blue is not truly blue but more a brown/grey color. They all are similar in taste, size, and shape for the most part and only differ in shades of the skin. I never have grown or tried mega celeste but have pulled a few mega sized figs from regular Celeste. They are most likely all sports or children of the original celeste aka Golden Celeste, sugar fig, Malta, ect like the picture James shared. I'd be tempted to say Celeste is more widely grown in the south east than Brown Turkey and many of the unknowns floating around are actually celeste. I've seen Jon, Herman, and others point them out several times when an unknown was in question.
 cis4elk  the only celeste I own that has dropped fruit was regular "Celeste" and that was when the tree was young.
the others hang on until ripe or until sour in heavy rains. 

This was the first year I hadn't totally cut mine back and I got a breba crop on the old grow that soured when it rained and made a hugh mess and my main crop was much smaller, this year my baby is getting a big  pruning.  One thing it has never done is drop figs...what's odd is that Celeste are not even suppose to have a breba crop..

If you live in FL you may want to grow it in a pot, too much rain will sour the figs. in a pot you can control how much water the plant gets but beware celeste makes a huge tree even up here in the upstate of SC it's nothing to find a 15ftx15ft Celeste tree against an old house. so you will need a bigger pot with root pruning and top working you should be good with a 40-50 gal pot. you could go smaller but expect a lot of root pruning. If the sun is baking your pots you can spray paint them white to keep the root zone cooler. Black's great for many growers up north but you don't want the pot getting too hot especially if it's a small pot . Rain is hit or miss in SC, GA, and much of NC so it's makes a great inground plant for us "most of the time" but could be a problem for you and others with high annual precipitation rates.  I think places like AR, NM, OK, NV, TX, AZ, and Cali would also be great choices for in ground Celeste plants.