Hi All,

I'm a fig collector from the southwest border of Hungary and I'd like to exchange fig cuttings. I wouldn't like to involve money in, so I prefer the mutual way of exchange. I can offer about 50 cultivars but some of them are small trees, so cuttings are very limited from about 30 of them.

The cultivars I can offer and are from our big trees, so are not very limited (I post pictures from them later):

-dark plate, big, not a late variety but the season is very long, sometimes until november
-brown plate (hardy, first crop is not plate)
-most common cultivar of our region, large brown pyriform fruit, defined palmate leaves
-yellow round giant, fruits sometimes about 200 grams
-yellow round small, probably of dalmatian (Croatia) origin, few or no breba crop, but main crop is among the best
-dark skinned, probably of Dalmatian origin, late ripening, second crop in end of October here
-black round from the Hungarian village of Kutfej, strawberry pulp
-drying on tree, green
-dark elongated, breba crop is more round and lighter in color
-another traditional Hungarian variety, main crop quite late, brown, very abundant, breba crop also
-Italian brown, bit similar to the Hungarian brown above.
-yellow hard-skinned from the Hungarian city of Zalaegerszeg, hardy, strawberry pulp

Further to these cultivars I have the following ones, but they are 1 or 2 years-old trees, so cuttings are limited to 1-3 piece per tree (it means practically that I cannot send cuttings from these to more than 1-3 exchange partners and cuttings will be small):

-panachee
-parisienne
-ronde de Bordeaux
-portogallo
-sucrette
-salato
-col de dame (cuello de dama) black and white also
-napolitana (don't know dark or light, haven't fruited yet)
-big brownish-purple from Hungarian city of Pecs, hardy
-brogiotto nero
-albo
-dattero
-new bianco
-dauphine
-corso
-nero roco
-dottato
-sementino
-corvo siculo
-piazzetta (good for drying)
-luzzano (amber pulp)
-bianco gigante
-montesano
-bottaccio o.
-brown turkey (don't know which strain)
-raffaone (or possibly a misspelled faraone?)
-San Piero Na.
-verdino Giacomo (one of my personal favorite, green skin, deep red inside, very good for drying)
-montalcino rosa (pink skin)
-Madeleine des 2 saisons
-2 unknown Italian cultivars from Cesena

After all, I'm LOOKING FOR the following:

-Although all our fig cultivars are parthenocarpic and the fig wasp is not present here, I want to collect:

-caprifig trees (preferably good ones, for example persistent capri, capri Roeding) and wasps or larvae inside to settle down a fig wasp colony here. I'm also looking for female cultivars requiring pollination eg.:

-Smyrna, Calimyrna, Sari Lop Incir, Marabout, Zidi, Black Smyrna, Bursa Siyahi or any.

The reason for that is that I like challanges and they would be good rarities added to my collection. An alternative to the blastophagas could be artificial pollination, I like experiments.

-Any other good cultivars, for example:

-Genovese nero/black Genoa
-Black Madeira
-Black mission, better strains
-Celeste
-Negronne
-(Desert) King
-Sucre verte
-Vasilika syka
-Grise Saint Jean
-Hardy Chicago
-Marseillaise
-Noire de Caromb
-Noire de Barbentane
-Sultane
-Tena
-Nefiach
-Becane
-Verdal
-Bebera preta
-Verte
-Verdone
-Abicou
-Barnissotte/bourjassotte noire
-Beall
-Bellone
-Conadria
-Grosse grise
-Pied de Boeuf
-Longe d'Aout

-Any really hardy cultivar you know. Although our climate is very special in this tiny region (zone 8, winter absolute lows are generally -10 Celsius or warmer) but there are some harsh winters and I'd like to provide other collectors/friends from colder regions (zone 6-7) of my coutry with really hardy figs.

-A sangu, bursa siyahi, rigata rossa or any other good cultivar from the page ficuscarica.com

-Ull de perdiu, verdal from galgoni.com

-Any best US cultivar, you've talked about so many in this forum

-any other good, interesting French, Italian, Greek, etc. cultivar i don't have yet.

Some people have contacted us already from Gardenweb but I'd kindly accept any help or offer especially about the caprifig-wasp-smyrna fig staff. We also possess 14 asian persimmon (Diospyros kaki) cultivars, so we are interested in scion wood exchange of persimmon. We are interested in non-astringent japanese cultivars although we have some already.

Isn't it much easier to get the figs in Europe? I mean, thanks for you generosity, but France, Italy, Spain, and middle east all connected by land and with EU working European countries. I'm not understanding why looking for figs from US. I could think it would be other way around us looking for European and middle eastern figs.

You know the weirdest thing?  Doesn't specifically want any of our good ones.  No Excel, Sequoia, none of the stuff from the US South (Celestes, Hunt, Hollier), none of the better new strains from UCD, or any of the local mutants like Kathleen Black.  Virtually everything except perhaps Conadria can be got in Europe!  Someone's got reading to do!

I wish I could trade with you, but mine are all spoken for, and I'll have more in a year or two.  I'm actually getting some cuttings from a member from Spain in exchange for shipping, and I'm delighted!  I like International trade and would not discourage you at all, but the only one I have tons of is Violette De Bordeaux, and that's not on your list. 

Maybe someone will step up with a trade for you!

Good luck!

Suzi

A mixed plate:

Our biggest trees:

First: drying-on-tree
2nd: early purple
3rd: elongated
4th: the most common cultivar in our region

Cross section:
-"szivarfuge" is the elongated
-"kutfeji lila" is the Kutfej purple(black)
-"korai lila" is the early purple
-"vorcsoki dalmat" is the yellow round small Dalmatian, but found in a local vineyard called Vorcsok

Col de dame noire/cuello de dama negra

figfan, and these are cold hardy right?  I live in a Mediterranean Climate where it never snows or freezes, so I don't need these varieties.  But in Hungary, I would assume your winters are cold, right?  The Szivarfuge is the one I'd like someday!  Please keep me in mind next year when I have more to trade, although, I'm content to just pay shipping for cuttings!  How about that?  A few dormant sticks, and I send postage?

Suzi

Another from the small yellow (Vorcsok)

sorry:

Dear Suzi,
Our fig trees are in a USDA zone 8 climate, so winter minima are around -10 C/ 14 F degrees. Our well known cultivars are all hardy in this climate, the biggest trees never suffered frost damage in the last 20-25 years. I know that there are fig cultivars that freeze back to the ground in a -8 C/ 19 F winter so a can assume that our cultivars are hardier that average. Most of our country is in zone 7 or even 6 but snow cover and all-day freezes for several days or even for weeks are common phenomena here too. As far as I know Violette de Bordeaux is same?/similar to? Negronne, but not sure.

OK figfan!  VdB IS also known as Negronne!  You are on!  I'll swap 3 cuttings of VdB for 3 cuttings of Szivarfuge.  My trees won't go dormant for a month or two, so keep your cuttings in the cold storage until then, and I'll be happy to swap!  I love the length and shape of the Szivarfuge.

Now, tell me about the flavor! 

Here is why Violette de Bordeaux was my first tree, and there are two and they are 4 years old with many cuttings available:  VIOLETTE DE BORDEAUX.  SYN: BORDEAUX, BEER'S BLACK, NEGRONNE (003), PETITE FIGUE VIOLETTE, DESCRIPTION  Skin and flesh colors: Purple-black; strawberry Widely adapted. Small fig with excellent flavor. Small tree adapts well to containers. Violette de Bordeaux figs taste and smell to some like raspberry jam. (022)  SKIN COLOR: PURPLE / BLACK FLESH COLOR: STRAWBERRY  BREBA CROP: YES 

Are we on for a trade?  Woo hoo!!

Suzi

Figfan_Hungary
I saw some of these pictures under the name ninovarga in GW forum.
Are you ninovarga at GW forum
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/fig/msg061221156216.html?85
 

Edit: Sorry, I missed reading that you are ninovarga friend as you mentioned in your later post.

Figfun_hungary,pls pm me,i'm interested in your figs.

Figfan_Hungary you might have better luck trading cuttings at http://www.fruitiers.net/

Fruit tree collectors from all over Europe trade cuttings on that french site. Good luck!

First: I got so many PM-s I try to cope with them. Maybe you should all form a cooperation in the USA to gather your offered cuttings in one big pack and write a common wish-list so that I would send one big package and you can distribute them thru domestic shipping. Maybe one of our relatives come to the States for Xmas.
Ottawan: Yes indeed, the mother-orchard is Nino's, the new cultivars are mine, but we operate the same company.
Wildforager: thanks for the suggestion, I'll try it. I don't speak or write French but I can read and understand it more or less from my Italian and Spanish so maybe I can cope with that page.

1: our hardiest  cultivar, brown plate
2: the same, breba crop is not plate
3: black plate
4, 5: cross section

If you ship in a big package, the US custom surely will check its content. They will destroy the whole package because it's prohibited to import.

we need government to allow importation of fig cuttings without limitation. sort of like no duty on bagpipes related items that kennedy passed. or so i heard..

Jimmy: sure, i know it. That's why i'm waiting for a bit and try to organize, rationalize the demands. I'd really like to share our varieties with US friends and others from transcontinental distances but it would be quite hard to send 2-3 cuttings to 28 partners and spend hundreds of dollars for shipping. We have enough time to spring.

yellow giant