Hello, I'm in Maryland in zone 7a, but where I live is about half a mile from 6b.  My HOA is not going to allow me to put up a tarp or anything that looks bad to protect my trees in winter so I'm wondering if they can survive in the ground here.  

I've planted a 4ft tall Hardy Chicago 8ft from the south wall and I'm going to see how it fares through next winter with no protection.  My other 2 trees are still in pots as they are about a foot shorter.  Does anyone have any experience living on the cusp of where figs are supposed to be able to grow with no winter protection?

http://imgur.com/dM8oxMr - Hardy Chicago in the ground

Hardy Chicago should be fine in your zone. One of my friend (N NJ, zone 6) had Hardy Chicago purchased from Lowe's 3 years ago. But it haven't producing figs yet.

I live in zone 6b illinois, I have several kinds of figs I leave out unprotected in ground. Hardy chicago being one of the hardeness of them all

Good to know.  Maybe 6a is the cut off for growing unprotected figs then?

garden_whisperer  How much die back do you have on the unprotected figs? What are you average low for the winters? I am trying to learn what can be unprotected here at my location. I have average lows around 20 degrees but have seen 5 degrees and 10's a few times.
Do the winter wind seem to affect them much?

Zone 8
South west TX

My hardy chicago has no dieback at all. This is its third winter outdoors. Petes honey had some dieback of the smaller branches, purple magnolia 100% dieback to the mulch, fast new growth from roots first winter, desert king some damage to smaller branches new fast growth from roots. Celest I don't know about this one, time will tell. Planting many more this year for winter testing.

It's so odd to me that what looks like essential the same plant (all fig trees) can have such a different response to freezing weather.

We had some temps down in the teens, wind chills below zero but not for long. Mainly stayed in the mid to upper 20s. And as far as I can see I a strong north wind on a fig tree with wind chill is bad news. But so far all are regrowing from the roots if they were damaged at all.

Norland is soposed to be good till -20 its from switcherland I think. Rain tree has em I'm going to pick up a few this year.