Greeting everyone.  I'm a transplant to the fair city of St. Louis, Missouri.  I currently live just a few miles north of the city of Arnold, for those of you who know where that is.  I have long been interested in growing figs.  That all started during my childhood in Southeast Tennessee where my grandmother had a fig tree of unspecified type in her flower garden.  Though I was always curious as to the placement there because my grandfather had a separate lot (aprox. an acre) for his garden and had several other fruit bearing trees planted that he took care of.  Sorry for the digression there.

Anyway, I am looking for a good fig or two that will thrive in this area.  I appreciate any and all help with finding the right variety of fig and with locating a place to purchase said fig.  

Craig

Welcome!  There is, or used to be a guy in St Louis growing figs in a greenhouse.  His name is Ivan Stoilov.

Ivan's Fig Farm LLC
8517 Dittmer Catawissa Road
Dittmer, MO 63023
Phone: (636) 285-0420

http://www.saucemagazine.com/a/1990

You can grow a Hardy Chicago in ground.  It will die back to the surface in winter but it will usually produce fruit any way.  If you can overwinter some fig trees in pots in an unheated or minimally heated garage you have many more options.

Call these people - they sometimes sell HC

http://www.gardenheights.com/home.html

hi I am farther north in s.e. neb  zone 5 close to six .  I grow figs in pots I keep them dormant in a cool basement room all winter .

good luck

Welcome! I live about an hour northwest of Arnold. I don't have a whole lot of experience to offer but there is a wealth of knowledge here. I would imagine most will suggest Hardy Chicago as it has good history in colder climates and is pretty readily available.

So I have four different varieties that I'm growing, or trying to, in pots: a Chicago Hardy, a Desert King, a Celest, and a Kadota. The Chicago Hardy is the largest at about 5 feet tall and is doing pretty well. The others are about 7 to 12 inches tall.

The Desert King is doing well and is showing new growth. The other two are not doing very much as of yet, but I'm not expecting much if anything other than moderate growth this year. At least I'm enjoying the process and hope to see the fruits of my labor next year.