Originally Posted by
nycfigGood morning everyone! Fall is upon us here in NYC and all the fig trees are going to sleep. As they're stripped of leaves and trimmed up for storage, I'm reminded of my Great-Grandfather, Pietro's fig tree. Pietro immigrated to the US from Bari, Italy in the 40's. He and his family settled on Fuller St. in the Westchester Square section of the Bronx and the place where he planted his fig tree. He and my Great-Grandmother, Graciella, raised they're family which became a large extended family of Grandparents, Parents, aunts, uncles and cousins, spanning 2 buildings on the same block. My earliest childhood memories are of my Great-Grandparents telling stories about how they met and came to America and how Pietro's fig tree grew in a pot until they moved to Fuller St. I can remember sitting in the yard during the hottest part of the summer with the extended family, legs sticking to the vinyl on those 50's style heavy chrome diner chairs, eating fig after fig after fig. I was the youngest at the time and had to stay close to the adults while everyone else was allowed to run around on the block. That was fine for me as I was able to gobble up more figs.
Fast-forward a few years and my family moved to Staten Island. Eventually everyone move out of the buildings on Fuller St. and by the late 80's my Great-Grandparents had passed and the buildings were sold off. Everyone in the family that I remembered as a child had moved to different parts of New York and further. Everyone saw each other less and less and by the time my Grandparents passed in the 90's we only saw each other at weddings and funerals. Sad, but I guess that's the progression of most families here. I never forgot about those good times with family on Fuller St. and Pietro's fig tree.
I bought my first fig tree in my early 20's. It was a 3' whip, Hardy Chicago from Belleclare nursery in Long Island. It grew that summer in a pot and then died in the winter. I've purchased more from mail-order nurseries and from other online sources over the years but didn't really get into growing until I retired in 2012 and finding F4F shortly thereafter. I've always thought about Pietro's fig tree and with the advent of the internet I knew that it was still there! It was a comforting feeling knowing that his fig tree was still alive and thriving. I always wanted to go back and get some cuttings but procrastination prevented me.
Bring on the arctic winter of 2013/2014. Fig trees everywhere in NYC were killed. Fearing the worst, I put my family in the car and drove out to the old house in the Bronx. I knocked on the door and met the owner. After exchanging pleasantries, she told me that she bought the house in 1986 and enjoyed the figs from my Great-Grandfather's tree every year. She said that I could take whatever I wanted from the tree. We walked out the front and to the driveway which was now protected by black iron gates (the neighborhood has changed over the years). She opened the gates and we went into the yard and I saw the old fig tree for the first time in 40+ years! Wow! I stood there with my young sons and wife and remembered summers playing in the driveway with my brother and cousins while all the adults watched. Most of all I remembered the great figs from Pietro's fig tree which was now about 80 years old, uncared for and overgrown with tall weeds all around it. It was late winter and the tree was never winter protected. You could see that there was never any dieback, but the branches looked and felt as if they were not viable. I took cuttings from different parts of the tree but they did not look good and my fears were correct as none of them rooted.
About this time panic and realization set in that my own procrastination had kept me from recovering a family heirloom and now it would be gone forever. I reached out to Frank (F4F BronxFigs) and told him the story. Frank is a great guy that is very knowledgable and more than willing to take time out to help me. He was chomping at the bit to get over to the house and try an air-layer or take summer cuttings to root or sprinkle magic pixie dust on the tree... anything to help. Coordinating with different schedules, the present owner of the house, etc was hard. In the end, I returned with my family 2 more times to take cuttings. Nothing worked.
It was now over a year since I had been back to Pietro's fig tree and suckers had appeared. I was unable to dig anything from the roots but once again took some cuttings. All failed, until I used Frank's summer cuttings method and finally got one to root. It grew indoors over the winter and I up-potted in the spring. It grew very slowly but is now over 3 ft. tall and very healthy. I finally have my family heirloom!! It even gave me a few ripe figs this year. How did they taste? It doesn't matter. To me they tasted best out of any of the 50 varieties in my yard!
Each time I look at Pietro's fig tree I think of family and all the water that has passed under that bridge. It's a very powerful feeling and it's prompted me to reach out to family members that I haven't spoken to in years. I love having it and look forward to air-layering a branch to give to my mom so she can have her Grandfather's fig tree, too.
Thank you for helping, Frank. Your summer rooting method worked on the
last cutting! Although you may think that you didn't do much, just knowing you were there to help was very comforting and helpful.
