I stopped by Lowes this weekend and they had Chicago hardy figs for sale. I bought one of these last year and it produced very well. I wish they would have had a different variety for me to buy. Bring on the warm weather!

Kane, doubtful you will find the rare and delicious varieties at Lowes or any big box or commercial nursery.  To get those, you will need to trade cuttings, buy cuttings or buy air layers or rooted plants from forum members or from a trusted vendor on Ebay.

If it was not past dormancy here (81 degrees today and all figs have broken buds and are leafing out), I'd send you something you would never find local.  Speaking of local, check your craigslist or freecycle.  You might get some unknown Italian or Greek fig, but those are usually great!

Good luck!

Suzi

Suzi,
Thanks for the advice. As I gain more knowledge about the different varities I can see myself doing exactly what you said.
Kane

Our lowes carries the turkey lsu gold and celeste. Funny how lowes has different stuff all over

Why cant figs cant be cut after they brake bud??

I was at our local Lowes and home depot this weekend. The outdoors plants section is still under snow. Looks like it will be that way for a  couple more weeks.

Mat. Hang in there. Your almost there. Feel bad for friends up north. But yall do have beautiful land scape And i love all the different spruce type trees.

I bought a $9.99 Hardy Chicago from Lowes 2 years ago and it has done really well. It has grown nicely and the figs are just delicious.
I am a big fan of Hardy Chicago, possibly one of the most under rated plants.

I have a few fig trees purchased at Lowes and Tractor Supply in 1 and 3 gallon pots, now they are in ground going on 3 years and are doing great.

I found hardy chicago at HD last year.  Only got a couple figs, and they were figgy, but not sweet at all.  I toss it up to being a first or second year plant giving me some really late figs...or so I hope.

Walmart is another interesting place to check.  They're getting their spring selection in now here in GA, and I've been keeping an eye out.  Rumor on the street is they get their tissue culture plants from Agristarts.  Last year they had Magnolia, Black Mission, "Ischia" which I think is for green ischia, Lattarula, and Brown Turkey, all of which are made by Agristarts.  Keep in mind that Agristarts also makes VdB, Kadota, Desert King, to name a few....not a bad selection if you keep your eyes peeled and are willing to wait on TC plants to produce...

Also, I kind of hate you guys!  I live in GA, where tons of people own figs (mostly generic, but still) and I checked both lowes stores in town this weekend and didn't find a thing!  How is Maryland getting figs, and not GA?  HD just got theirs in last week...but all hardy chicago again.

The big box stores are not your only option for live figs.  Check your Craigslist.  There may be a couple local wholesalers who sell to the public on certain days.  We drove about 40 minutes to one and I got my Kadota in a 5 gallon pot for $10.00, plus a mango and an avocado and some other landscaping type plants.  They also had mulch and potting soil really cheap.

@figpig_66, many people do take cuttings from green budding trees, but I am not one of them.  The cutting and the tree both bleed sap, and green cuttings sent across country (California to Maryland) would take a few days and during that time, a non-dormant cutting would likely mold or die (like sending a rose stem across country with no water, expecting it to survive).  I learned a lesson my first year of propagating cuttings NOT to have them sent in spring or summer.  They are cut green, and the heat of the delivery trucks causes them to arrive moldy, slimy and rotten.  It's not a chance I wish to take.

Suzi

Suzi. Thank you. I have noticed everyone stops during spring and was wondering why. Richie

Was at Lowes today and they had Hardy Chicago fig trees galore. I noticed that some containers had two nicely rooted cuttings very close together. Still dormant, all ya got to do is cleave the root ball right between those cuttings and you will have two fig trees for the price of $11.99!

Kane - thanks for the tip. Our first fig that started this strange collection was a HC purchased a few years ago. We now get 100's of sweet tasty morsels from this one ! Since then, have been able to find Brown Turkey, black Mission, and Celeste. By accident, we picked up a HC that turned out to be a Conandria - now one of our most favorite. Might check Lowes and HD out, thanks.

I buy a lot of fig trees at Lowe's, I have bought LSU Gold, LSU Purple, Hardy Chicago, Brown Turkey, Celeste, and Ischia.  All the Brown Turkeys turned out to be English Brown Turkeys and most of the Ischias turned out to be Magnolia, even had Ischia hanging tag and Magnolia trunk bands on the same trees.

I call it the Lowe's Lottery, some winners, some losers.  I do not sell any trees that the cuttings came from Lowe's trees until I see figs to confirm type, otherwise I sell them as "Lowe's Unknown" which people still buy as most don't know there are different figs and don't care.

Buying fig trees at any box store is better odds than playing the lottery, but even odds of 1 in 2 is not very comforting. All I can say is that of the fig trees that I have purchased at box stores have grown very well and the ripe figs taste good, whatever they turn out to be, and they can make some top notch jam. I only purchase trees and cuttings from known growers in the last two years but have kept all the box fig trees, purchased 3 years ago, and all are in the ground giving me lots of figs.

As Paradise Nursery wholesale, we grew thousands of fig trees for a rewholesaler that supplied east coast Lowes and Home Depot among other retailers.  We were scrupulous about correct labeling and variety identification and always guaranteed our figs to be true to identification (both wholesale and retail). However, it was not unusual to have this supplier call us toward the end of the spring season when they needed to fill a "big box" order for a specific variety and request us to "just send whatever you have left".  Because the trees were re-tagged by the supplier, we've always suspected that they sent the figs out as whatever the store had requested, regardless of the original variety. If so, this is a real shame and certainly explains some of the unusual results from those sources!

Here in nc I was at Lowes a week or 2 ago and they had lsu purple, lemon fig ,brown turkey and Celeste