Princesa is a fig which I received from Montserrat Pons two winters ago.
Although he has it in his collection, it is not from Balear islands, it is from Servicio de Investigación y Desarrollo Tecnológico en la finca La Orden in Badajoz, Spain. It is, between other things, a fig germplasm repository.
Years ago, he personally received Princesa from researchers of this center.

When I asked Montserrat for varieties he could recommend to me. He told me without doubt Princesa (in addition to other varieties). He says that it is one of his best figs.

I rooted and grafted it past year, and I can taste just one fig, but surprisingly, it was delicious, the best of all the figs I tasted this season, despite it has been an horrible year for figs here.

It was green with deep red flesh, it reminded me to Italia 258. Unfortunately I didn't take pictures.

Don't forget the name...

P.D:
- Princesa is not in Montserrat's book
- Be careful, like other spanish fig names, "Princesa" is used for other different varieties too. There are several varieties with the same name. "Princesa" means "princess"

I am very interested to see this variety and how it performs for you next season Axier, it sounds really good and I am very curious of it.

Me too!
I have one potted plant and several vigorous grafted branches of Princesa, I hope they will fuit next year.

(I wrongly wrote in my first post that I received it the past winter, It is false, It was two winters ago.
Time flies and my memory too!)

My Princess has yet to produce a fig and she's 8 years old.  She learns really quickly, though.  I'll start teaching her the command, "Make Figs!"  Here she picks up her namesake.




Princess accessorizing




Princess attended by her maids

Jon,

Sounds interesting. Can you post some pictures when you are able to?

Thanks

It is a very sweet honey fig . And one of pons favorites.

Looking forward to learning more on this one myself! :)

Jon

Gracias por la información!

Rafed, Jon is in San Diego. Look what you started. :)

In Axier's initial post in this thread, he writes the following:

"I rooted and grafted it past year, and I can taste just one fig, but surprisingly, it was delicious, the best of all the figs I tasted this season, despite it has been an horrible year for figs here.

It was green with deep red flesh, it reminded me to Italia 258. Unfortunately I didn't take pictures."

Neither Bass' nor Harvey's Princesa trees produce figs with that interior color (see this thread). Clearly, the variety Axier describes is not the same as those producing the figs pictured in the other thread. The question is, which of these figs is one of Pons' favorites? I'm guessing it's the red fleshed one, as that typically indicates a much more complex flavor profile over that of a honey fig. When one has sampled hundreds of different varieties, I figure an excellent complex fig will win out over the comparatively simple flavor profile of an excellent honey or sugar fig in most cases. That's certainly my bias.

The next question is, does anybody in the US have the Princesa that Axier describes?

For some strange reason birds seem to feel aggressive towards the color white.  I first was told about this about a neighbor who did laser land leveling and would mark fields with white bags.  If he was working in an area with many crows, he would not place the bags out until the day of his surveying (he now uses a GPS system so such surveying is no longer done).  If he placed the bags out even one day before they were all torn to little pieces.  May want to experiment with yellow stakes.

Harvey, ironically my labels are yellow. I think that black birds don't worry with my yellow labels, they dig the soil and sometimes they do it so strongly that they remove the labels. Fortunately it is infrequent.
I put the labels half buried, between the soil and pot wall.

So much for my hypothesis on the favorite figs of others. Thanks for the clarification, Axier. I'm now interested in more information on Planera. Have you eaten more than one fruit off of your tree this season thus far?

As of 2012, your flavor experience with Princesa did not yet match Pons'. Has the flavor been better either last year or this year? Harvey, you've also eaten a few Princesa figs. I know you don't fancy yourself a breaker downer of fig flavors, but does it's flavor match or exceed other honey figs you've eaten?   

The couple of Princesa I've eaten didn't have a rich enough flavor to be one of my top favorites.  It was nice.  I understand it to be considered a nice sweet Spanish variety.

Green figs  with a nice jammy interior -nothing like them..

pls post pictures of ripe fruit Axier

One of mine was posted at http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/show_single_post?pid=1283950441&postcount=22

Thanks Axier for the clarification good to know!!!

So Planera is the right fig. Did Planera come from Balearic islands or Servicio de Investigación y Desarrollo Tecnológico en la finca La Orden?

Princesa: I have just tasted two figs from a potted plant, it is not enough to judge the quality. So far, I agree with Harvey, a good fig but not a top fig for me. Sweet but not a complex taste, plain sweet, just what I don't like of a fig.
In any case, as I have said, it is soon for a conclusion, will see next year...

Planera: The figs have not ripened yet. You have my opinion in my first post. If it confirms this year, it is an excellent fig.

Here you are Planera pictures

By the way, Planera is from Balearic Islands, from Montserrat's collection.

Planera is a very interesting looking fig

Thanks, Axier. I remember that thread you linked. Hard to forget the photos and descriptions of all of those fantastic looking figs. I've got a big, fat one of them (CdDB), though it might be the best of them, so I shouldn't be too upset. While it looks similar, I thought I read that CdD Rimada is not the same as Panache, which I also have. I wonder if there really is much difference between the two.

Hi Harvey what are a few of your favorite tasting figs. Thank you, Howard