last spring I planted several figs -

1. Texas blue giant
2. Panache Tiger fig
3.celestial
4. Desert King
5. Italian ever bearing
6. Negronne Fig(Violette de Bordeaux)

I protected them as well as I could this being the first winter in the ground (I'm zone 7 South Carolina) the one that came thru the winter the best was the Panache Tiger fig its fully leafed out as of now and has surpassed its size from last year. the next was the Texas blue giant which lost half of its growth and its sprouting out  half way up its stem but looks like its gonna do well.  After that the Desert King put up from about a forth of the growth from the ground so its a forth of the size it was when I planted it now.  The Italian ever bearing put out a sprout about 4 inches from the ground out of the main trunk but seems to be very slow about growing and the Negronne died all the way back to the ground but has put multiple sprouts from the root which are growing VERY fast.  The weird thing about it is the stem from last year if you scrape it back is bright green and wet like a sapling under the bark but just is  not growing any growth out of it so I don't know what the deal with that is.  The Celestial is a brown dead stick with no signs of life at all.  Anyway I mulched them all with compost and am applying weak peters fertilizer to them every other week.  Hopefully this coming winter will be a milder one then the last and they can get some good growth without loosing so much of it over the winter.

How did you protect them? Did they have time to get fully dormant before cold weather hit?

what I did was I waited until all of the leaves were off of the plants after a few frosts.  After that I took pipe insulation and put around the stems and around that put some regular wall insulation that I got from where some people were tearing a house down and wrapped that around the outside of the pipe insulation.  I then took some old ply wood and made like a lean too over that and put tar paper on top of the ply wood so that rain or snow would run off and it would keep the insulation for the most part dry yet still allow air to circulate.  This however ended up being one of the strangest winters we have had in over ten years because not only did it get really cold but we had a cold snap where it didn't get above freezing for about a week which is VERY unusual for here.  I had plants that usually are not hardly touched by winter that got killed all the way back to the ground this past winter.

Hi Aaron.  We are in Zone 7b here in North Georgia, so we probably have a similar climate.  I'm trying lots of new figs, which are still an unknown of course, but with the older now well established figs I noticed a clear pattern: They would die back to the ground the first year, but every year come back a little stronger till they acclimated with a strong root system and a hardwood base to come back from quickly and strongly each year.  They looked dead after the first winter generally, but in time nearly all of them came back stronger each year.  So be patient and in a few years you should have some strong plants.

Our general approach is organic, all natural, and as low maintenance as possible, and on the whole we have had great success.  But if a plant or tree proves to be too weak for the climate, we just replace it with a stronger one better suited to the climate, which on the whole is very mild (compared to the Great Lakes where I'm originally from).

I'm especially interested in how your Texas Giant is doing in Zone 7/Southeast.  We just planted one of these this year.

For the most part, to grow a fig here, all you have to do is plant it and get out of the way.  Our figs are looking great this year.  Hope you have a good season too.

Best wishes.

John
Georgia Piedmont
Zone 7b

p.s.  We don't cover anything and all are in ground.  We try to locate them in favorable locations (on the south side of a hill; building; micro-climate protected area; etc., but otherwise they are on their own, and so far they are generally doing very well without any covering after the first year acclimation process.

Thanks for the info that gives me more hope!  The Texas blue giant fig seems to be doing pretty good because its growing fast even though it did lose some of last years growth.  I think it will be fine.  Last year I actually got 3 figs off of it 2 were not any good at all they were dry on the inside with the consistency of a dandelion or something no taste at all and almost cottony.  However that 3rd fig was awesome! for such a small tree it was a very big fig and had a very pleasant taste so I'm hoping to get some more off of it this year if it didn't get killed back too bad.

Thanks for the info on the Texas Blue Giant Aaron.

Our figs generally died back completely to the ground the first year, and all the new growth was from the roots.  But after a few years they now have a solid hardwood base that overwinters just fine and the standing overwintering part is about 4-6 feet depending on the variety, pruning, etc.

If you're planting a small orchard, I would also highly recommend Nanking Cherries.  Cherry trees were easy to grow up North around the Lakes, but we had repeated failure with cherry trees in this climate (Zone 7b).  So we tried Bush Cherries, specifically Nanking Cherries, and we have way more than we can use.  They taste just like pie cherries, and you can eat them fresh, make great cherry sauce, juice, preserves, etc.  They are smaller than regular cherries though, so pitting them is more work than it's worth.  So we just cook them and run them through a colander to separate out the pits and make pies that taste like great cherry pies but are more like the texture of a lemon pie, smooth with no fruit pieces.  They grow great here though, totally pest and disease free, so if you like cherries this is good choice for this climate.  If you lived closer I'd say come pick some.  They have been getting ripe for about 2 weeks now (they are very early fruiting and provide fruit a decent crop the 2nd year after planting) and I have given up on keeping up with them.  That's a good problem to have though.  Too much fruit.

Best wishes.

John
Georgia Piedmont
Zone 7b

p.s.  The Nanking Cherries do have one peculiarity.  The turn red and then fully ripen a week or two later.  Some people taste the red but still unripe fruit and don't like them.  But they aren't really ripe till a week or two after turning red.  The get larger and the juice and sugar increase greatly when fully ripe and taste just like a good pie cherry at that point.  But they are smaller, about 1/2 to 2/3 size, but every branch is covered and easy to pick.  Just gently run your hand down the branch with a buckety underneath.

We got the Nanking Cherries from Raintree Nursery.

I was VERY pleased with the fruit from the Texas Blue Giant.  It had a very nice flavor to me.  Also I got one fig off of the Negronne Fig(Violette de Bordeaux) and so far its the best tasting fig Ive ever had (but that's not saying a lot because I'm fairly new to figs)

Wow those cherry bushes sound really nice I planted a dwarf black gold cherry tree this past spring but will check on  the bush ones.

Thanks for the information Aaron.  We have both of these figs and hope to get a few figs this year.  The Nanking Bush Cherries have been very good for us, because we can't seem to grow a regular cherry tree in our climate.  They are smaller (the bushes only get about 6 feet tall) and the fruit is smaller, but the taste is every bit as good and they grow like weeds.  You will get fruit quick too.  Maybe a little bit even the first year, but the second year for sure.  Premier Blueberries have done really well for us too.

Hope you have a great season.

Best wishes.

John
Georgia Piedmont
Zone 7b