I am curious to see how different Celeste Figs look around the country in various locations.

I would appreciate if members would post a picture of their Celestes, Fruit exterior, Fruit Interior, Leaves and your location.


San Diego, CA

 

 

 

Only if you include the Brown Turkey in your study. Time to fess up, Jon.

My Celeste which is a common one in this area of South Louisiana.

The leaf


Just ripe fig


Over ripe to the candy stage and drying on the tree


Ripe on the right and over ripe to the candy stage on the left.

Give me a day or two, I picked only ones that were close to ripe this afternoon. I can tell you one thing, they sure aren't as dark as yours Jon,  the ones I pick are more brown then purple. 

Mine develop that purplish color when they over ripe. I find that they are too sweet at that stage to eat but a few, but at the just ripe stage I can eat a bowl full.
"gene"

Gene, that is part of what I am looking for. The fruit look accurate, but would never think that leaf was a Celeste, here.

Here is Mine, Some get darker and look like a Black Mission.   

Gene and I are only a few miles apart. The photo with the plate of figs are two different Celeste trees (Bud & Babin) compared to my Southern Brown Turkey (Willis)

Charles

I have two Celeste trees in pots. One came from Home Depot and the other came from Lowe's.
The first thing that I noticed was the difference in the color of the barks. One is extremely light Grey while the other is dark Grey.
They behaved differently in their first year. The Dark Grey bark tree dropped its fruit for some reason, while the light Grey bark tree had extremely delicious fruits.

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/show_single_post?pid=1278789058&postcount=1

I will repost new pictures ASAP.

Hi all,
I don't have celeste here.
@Rafed, no BT photo for now in this thread . The brebas from my BT are still not ripe for now.
But, I'll open the BT festival (Topic) - the real BT, not the "improved BT" or whatever strains people are calling "BT something" or "something BT" and those strains are  not the original BT .
It's going to be funny :) ... Shall I prepare some aged eggs and aged tomatoes ...? Let's keep the topic civilized !

Sorry about that, I must have been typing post #4 at the same time Gene was posting #3 because I never seen it. My celeste figs look like your top pic Gene.

Ok here is my celeste,  

Ryan, sub lobes on the main, central lobe is what I consistently see on Celestes, as shown in the second pix.

Celeste summer in Taiwan

 

The low temperature can be different colors

   

These are leaves off one of my Celeste trees and some figs from last year.  These are from SW Louisiana.

I see what your talking about Jon, honestly I never paid attention to it before.

I was just down in St. Augustine, Fla, (Butler Beach) and the street I was staying on had a HUGE fig tree ( more like a bush---but huge) and it had figs All over it...some just beginning to ripen. This was only one block from the beach. i wish I had gotten some cuttings but the owner wasnt there and I couldnt just take them. However i did observe the leaves and taste the fruit. The leaves were rounded with a definite triad shape...the fruits looked just like those posted...dark but more brown than black. Very tasty fruit esp. For it not being not being fully ripened. My guess is that it is a Celeste. It certainly was thriving in a hot, sandy location.

Here is a picture of that fig bush from GoogleMaps street view: (I'll kick myself if it is a rare one on my wish list!)

Are you still down there? I was there last week and was driving on A1A looking for a place to fish. I found a place called Summers Landing (I think) and the rock road leading down to the water goes up against peoples back yards. There was one green house that had a big fig tree with a trunk that must have been at least 10 inches in diameter. Wish I could have taken a pic but I felt creepy taking a picture of someone's back yard without them knowing...

My Celeste, or what everyone around East Texas calls a Celeste is the same as Gene's.  The classic three lobe, without "thumbs" leaf.  Figs are Brown.  The classic tree shape is a "dome" with the limbs touching the ground at the drip edge.  There are three trees in this area that are 40-50 ft across and 20-25 ft tall and are in excess of 60 yrs old.  The main trunk can be 24" in caliber.  The LSU Fig orchard Celeste also looks like Gene's.

@ Savage...alas, no I am not still there in Fla. Wish I were back in that lovely state where I was born 42 years ago, just off the A1A in Ponte Vedra, near Jacksonville Beach.

Actually this trip I was staying closer to Butler Beach, but figured no one would know what that was.

Just got back to bleh Kansas City after a 3,000 mile round roadtrip, just me and my son, visiting family in Chas., SC, camping on Cumberland Is., GA., St. Augustine, Valdosta/ Lakeland, GA and Atlanta, GA.

Saw several fig trees in the Decatur, GA area and a couple near Valdosta/ Lakeland, GA (Lanier and Berrien Counties) when visiting family sites. Didn't want to get a shotgun pulled on me though. LOL

Berrien county. You was practically in my yard.

Jon, the cuttings I sent you many years ago (your stock numbers A2222 Celeste 2BJS, A1194 Celeste 2BJS, and A074 Celeste AA001) had leaves and fruit very similar to those in Gene's photos. I was growing them in ground in Houston at the time. This was a very common fig to find in Houston.

Paging Mr. Palazzo, paging Mr. Palazzo.  You should post some photos of Vicksburg Celeste, especially of a photo of the tree.

The other day a friend came over and brought me a couple of Celeste figs from someone's tree here in Austin. I took a look and immediately recognized that they looked and tasted exactly like my Celeste fruit from my potted tree. The interesting thing was that those came from a large in ground tree growing in someone's yard.
As we started to sample other varieties that I'm currently growing in pots my friend mentioned that the Celeste were the best. I had my doubts, but then something happened.
For the past few days I've been having a fig breakfast consisting of no less than four or five varieties of figs, all growing in pots and I suddenly found myself saving the Celeste fruits till last, as if I'm trying to save the best for last. Not sure what happened this year, but in previous years the fruit was just sweet, but this year the flavor has improved dramatically.
I even noticed a honey drop on many figs. OK, so I have many fancy varieties, and some of my favorites are Col de Dame Blanc(hard to beat so far), Violette de Sollies, Fracazzano Nero, etc....not necessarily in pots, but this year the top surprise in pots is the Celeste. It is the winner for top productivity and flavor so far, considering that it is growing in a relatively small pot.
By the way I root pruned it this year. The only other variety that will probably beat it would be the Preto in pot (still waiting for results). But again the Preto is a very late variety and might not be suitable for everyone.
I would like to summarize that if you're looking for top taste and productivity and relatively early ripening in a pot you've got to give the Celeste a chance. It is not a variety to be taken lightly.
Below are pictures of my Celeste Tree (already picked a couple of dozen fruits this year) that came about three years ago from Home Depot. It just keeps on giving.