My Hollier fig went from a mediocre fig its first year to the sweetest fig in my collection this year. It was on my list to discard and I was shocked by its sweetness this year, like fig candy!!!, but still has mild but good flavor. I will be keeping this one!!!!! Golden amber center fig that drips honey. Some of my other figs have much better flavor but none match Hollier for sweetness so far.

Lets here what your sweetest fig is this year?
Best ED

I think I've come around full circle.  The first two trees I bought were Black Mission and Brown Turkey... both turned out to be Celeste.  The two best figs I've had this year (and it was a dismal year for figs at my house in Houston) have been Black Mission and Brown Turkey.  Both were in NJ and both were within the past week.  Whooda thunkit?

~james

As far as sweetest it would probably be my Italian Honey. However the best flavored would be Violette de Bordeaux and Bataglia Strawberry Verte. They both had a great balance of sweetness and flavor. My Celeste was good but not quite on the same level as the others. Have 6 other varieties that haven't ripened yet, so may have some new favorites.
Woody.

Woody I also agree with you that for flavor and sweetness Bataglia Strawberry Verte is one of the very best, pure strawberry jam flavor

My Strawberry Verte had a flavor cross between a peach and a mild strawberry, only had that flavor when the whole thing was tasted at once, just the inner pulp without the flesh was a sweet but mild strawberry. Definitely one to keep! Of course I doubt I would ever get rid of a fig variety just because it wasn't quite as good as the others. Mediocre ones can always be made into preserves or even wine if there is enough of them.
Woody.

Ed,

That is part of the mystery and lore of figs. Some are good from the very first while others need a few years to grow out of juvenility. I had my first Rouge de Bordeaux this year, and it was, frankly the worst tasting fig I ever ate. I am sure that isn't what it will end up as, but this first season, that is the fact of the matter. Last year Yellow Neches was nice, but unbelievably tiny. This year, 4 times bigger and has gone from nice to great. 184-15 has turned out to be a huge fig, which I didn't even recognize because the first year it was quite small.

I had my first Hollier about 1 week+ ago, and yes I was impressed with its size and
sweetness! Two more were supposed to follow soon, but some smart opossum
FIGured my figs out, completely took the ripe one and half chewed the other
semi ripe one...
Currently at war with vermin,
George (NJ).

Hi George,
I think you will find that next year your Hollier will be considerably sweeter and stronger flavor. That is if it behaves like mine. Seems like a very good fig. I am looking forward to trying and LSU gold fig next season as it sounds even better.
Best Ed

Ed ,
I do have a ~3' , 4 shoot,  LSU Gold fig  specimen (source: SSE-LA MC R 06).
Just went outside to examine it. No fruit yet!  I knew that I harvested  some new
'gold'  fig , but I think it was a Golden Celeste though . Anyway, it needs some
trimming, and I think that there should be enough wood for at least 1 person...
George (NJ).

Flavor can sure be weather influenced! Just picked 2 VdB and the flavor was definitely less than previous ones. The earlier ones ripened while we had day temps in the upper 90's and at night in the low 80's. This week we have been dropping into the 50's and 40's at night and 70's during the day. They were less sweet and milder flavor but were definitely ready, nearly fell off when touched. Had almost a watermelon flavor. I took a couple of pictures with my cell phone, no where near the quality of Jon's beautiful shots. Hope I have uploaded them correctly, first time trying to attach a photo.

Woody
091407_1851a1.jpg
091407_1853a1.jpg

Woody,

AMEN. I had several figs that I picked today that were almost tasteless, while the same figs just 2-3 days ago were fabulous. At first I thought my taste-buds had gone south, but then I came to Black Madeira. It still had the awesome taste, and my taste-buds were definitely still working. Phew!! We dropped from a high of 92 and sunny, to a high of 82 with a marine layer of clouds at night and early morning.

Black Mission was also fine today, along with White Texas Everbearing.

Dan,

In 2004, I spoke briefly with Dr. E. O'Rourke about the LSU figs. I also asked him about the Smith fig. The Smith fig, although not a product of the LSU program, is a fig that has been grown for many years in Louisiana. Dr. O'Rourke stated that the fig was named for Thomas Becknell Smith, a nurseryman in Belle Chasse, Louisiana. As you say, the Smith fig is a good fig. I found that it retained its flavor during the unusually heavy rains this summer in Austin. The external appearance of the fig seems to vary a good bit depending on weather conditions, although the interior remains red. Last year, my potted Smith Fig was uniformly green with a deep red interior. This year, I planted the fig in-ground, and the exterior was shaded with purple. A picture from a friend of mine from whom I received the fig shows the fig as yellow with a shading of red.

Joe

Thanks Joe for the background history for the Smith fig, plus the nice pictures.
I do have a 2006 young specimen, no fruit yet. Always wondered about the
Smith name. In Europe it (Smith) is used as we (here in USA) use Joe Doe
for a very common (maybe unkown)  name...

Anyone have the Doe Fig? Just kidding...
I've always heard that the Smith fig was a high quality fig but never had one in my collection. Joe, a mutual friend of ours tried to give me one years ago but never took him up on the offer.

Here is a picture of a Hollier harvested yesterday, very sweet.
Also some other figs.

Guilbeau and Madeleine des Deux Saisons fruit.

I am beginning to 2nd guess about my Hollier (SSE - GA IN C 06). It sure was sweet,
but the skin is supposed to be more on the greenish side, see my pic in post#15. Was
right next to my Guilbeau (same source: SSE - GA IN C 06), see my pic in post#16
and one-over next  to my Royal Vineyard (SSE-LA MC R 06)  no pic; large
yellowish brown fruit, thick skin. Wonder if I messed up somewhere! Will have
to be more careful and observe more next year...
George (NJ).

gorgi,

That is what is so frustrating, sometimes. Did you screw up (mislabel, swap cuttings, mix up tags, etc? Did the person sending the wood to you screw up (mislabeled, from wrong tree, mixed up wood), or did the person your donor got their wood from screw up? And so on, for the past 100 years, or more. Or were the descriptions made by someone who screwed up somewhere, or always had the wrong wood with the "right" name? That is the point of all the pictures I take. Whether correctly labeled or not, I KNOW what it looks like - and hopefully someone comes along at some point and says "this doesn't look right" or "it doesn't look like my so-and-so". And then there is the whole cultural/environmental affect that makes them look different in different places.

My Excel definitely doesn't look like the one at USDA/UC Davis - so I guess I collect some more excel cutting, and try to determine which one is the "real deal". The one I have is still a great fig, but I wonder if it is really "Excel".

I just  emailed my Hollier source a message (with above picture attached) for
hopefully some clarification/suggestion....
....and may I just add (editing, heavily)  that....
I did get some very quick answers...
My picture does represent his 'Hollier',  but now he is as much
'alarmed' as  me and he will  probably look for further info from his source....

Next big question, what do I have? I  still regarded it as a very good fig,
very different and unique  from what I else have that fruited.... For now,
I will  just call it Hollier-Not.

I will also be getting some new Hollier cuttings from my LA fig friend, who
describes it as a 'greenish' fig, originally sourced from Sherwood Akin,
also from LA.

With all this talk about Hollier and Smith I look forward to having my first figs from both of these this year.  As a matter of fact I have tentative plans to meet Dan A. at a pick-your-own fig orchard in South Louisiana this summer and pick a bunch of Smith figs :)

gorgi,

Illustrating my point, that it could have gone through many, many unsuspecting hands with a wrong name. Seesm to be part of the territory, unfortunately.

Pick my first Hollier a few days ago. It was great. Today I pick 8 Hollier figs & they are really delicious inspite of the weather being around 68*F(20*C). The flavour has a slight melon taste & this is a keeper for now. I did oiled the figs, perhaps it could have tasted  better without the oiling. My 2 year old tree is productive, its about 3ft tall.

Referring to my earlier posts (#15,17), where I had shown a (brown)
pic of my FIRST Hollier specimen and later tagging it as Hollier_Not...

This year it DID produce figs with a green skin...
Go figure (micro-climate/age/or what?).

New tag: Hollier_Not_Or-Maybe-So??!!...

I'll wait one more year.

Gorgi, I got a greenish fig from the Hollier-not you sent me. It was small but pretty sweet. It should get better as the plant is young and root bound.

Hey Gorgi, after 2 yrs, did it turn out to be Hollier?