what are your oldest in ground trees? I want to plant my trees in ground but I'm not sure what does best. I'm about 30 minutes south of you in Catawba SC just inside Zone 8. what are you doing about northern winds in winter and cold temps at night? do you wrap them or do you have a wind block or something to protect them? Witch of your trees had the worst die back besides Black mission and LSU gold? thanks and I look forward to hearing back from you.   

my oldest in ground trees are Celeste, Ronde de Bordeaux and Atreano, ages 10, 6 and 8 respectively. You're a stone's throw from Rock Hill, in the sticks! Ha! I use to wrap my trees but I did not this past winter. Today, I let mother do her thing. You are correct about Black Mission. I lost 2, 2 years ago but I have several that are 6 feet tall and put out a lot of figs. But I have these trees indoors. So far my 6 foot tall Noire de Caromb has the worse die back. Silly me forgot it was outside. In November.....temps droppped to 25 degrees twice before I realized it and moved it inside. It was my fastest growing tree last year gong from 18 inches to over 6 feet in one season. All was new growth and that dude froze. It looks like a tall burnt match stick. But it's growing fine now in my garage. My 4 big LSU Black and Violete de Bordeaux got about 3 inches of burn too, but not as bad as NdC. I'm leaning towards building a 20 foot shelter this year to protect these guys this Fall. cheers,

Keep us up dated as spring rolls in Dennis .

Wow! Impressive orchard, looks very nice.  Would love to see some new photos.  Do you have any new photo's of it?

I also would love to see how it will look this summer when all the leaves are out. Best Wishes...

UPDATE****

Dug up Lamperia Preto....was suffering and is now doing very well in a pot
Dug up De La Senyora.....it died to the ground but came back and is now in a pot --growing well!
Atreano took a big hit along with LSU Tiger, Votata, Deana, and Black Celeste.  Black Celeste will be dug up this Fall.
Tacoma Violet, GM #9, Kathleen Black, Celeste, Hunt, Emerald Strawberry, Pananas Purple, Alma, Desert King, Encanto, JH Adriatic, Strawberry, White Triana, Weeping fig, LSU Purple , and I258 took a hit but are doing fine.
Don Fortiss and Hardy Chicago took a big hit but survived and doing well.
The 2 trees that proved to be the hardiest in my climate at temps down to 5 degrees was Marseilles Black and LSU Purple.

The big freeze of 2013 really missed up the growing season from my orchard trees.  Many are delayed but figs are on the trees.  None are ripening and none are stressed.   Looks like the freezed helped a few of them even though they died to the ground--they are growing more than ever in the past.  I lost my largest Conadria and LSU Champagne, Votata, and Susser Georg. But I have backups in containers.  I won't be planting these in the ground in the future.  I completely covered Smith and De La Senyora.  Smith did fine, but DLS did not.  I'm digging smith up this Fall too. 

A few container trees are ripening now!  The bad news is its raining off and on every day now...kinda like last July.  But it has been hotter this year that last.  All this rain is going to mess up those trying to ripen now.  Like...

Brown Turkey
Piedmonte
Florea
Hardy Chicago

I've covered the figs with bags and time will tell if they ripen or just split open like a flower.  Right now, its pouring outside and thundering like crazy!  We are expecting rain every day this week!  Oh crap!  So much for eating figs this week!  Next month has to be better!