In Pacific North West, British Columbia, Canada, I have the most success(reliable) from:

Desert King(The most Ideal)             
Latarrula
Osborne Prolific   

These variants are grown in-ground without any need for winter protection.

I have the following variants under trials that may proved to be winners in their ability to ripen are:

RdB                       Granthams Royal      Rosetta(pot) 
Florea(pot)             Dauphine


Any suggestions on variants that I should seek for trials are most welcome. Key consideration here is
cooler summer than East Coast Canada & USA. Average summer temp is 20*C(70F) to 29*C(86F).




         

Hardy Chicago, Marseilles Black VS

Tacoma violet!!!!

Niagara Black?

Grasa's unknown/Vern's BT excels in Seattle:

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/fig-cuttings-6597245
http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/my-unknown-purple-with-amber-6457188

LSU Purple is very productive. Its main crop starts early. The fruit taste good when temps are in the 70's.

Hey Paul, we need to figure a way how to move these cuttings to you.  My fig is prolific, bought from a reputable nursery (swansons) but lost the tag in moving and moving again. I exchanged emails with a lady who is married to a Portuguese man and had an Italian Honey fig tree in Vancouver, she sold the fruits on Craigslist, described to be excellent  and ruining her house foundation.. here, should find out what kinda of tree she has.  (check your PM) 

Are you in the Vancouver area?

This is a great topic of interest for many of us in the northern latitudes!

For me there are 3 important criteria for fig cultivars in the N.E. :

1. Time (or heat units) required to ripen the figs (breba and main crops).  This may be even more important to the N. west coast where sunny days and heat can be in short supply.  Heat units is a standard measure used to find locations to grow wine grape cultivars.
2. lowest temperatures that the dormant fig wood can sustain.  (in some Sweden trials they found some mature fig trees that can take -16C/3F)
3. resistance to frost new growth can take. (this is really important here because we can have hot May weather and then get a light frost and again in the fall if they can withstand a light frost they can produce till November).

 
 

Is anyone in contact with Bill Farhat (Seattle)? I've run across several articles about him when noodling about on Google: http://blogs.seattletimes.com/allyoucaneat/2013/08/19/a-fig-tree-grows-in-seattle-the-man-his-mission-propagation/ (I was job-searching in the SeaTac area this summer and curious if figs could grow there  :))

@ Grasa, I got your mail. Thanks. There are lots of Ital Honey & Gillete in Vancouver. Thanks for the info.
I will checkout the info provided. Hope it is a different strain. I am trialing many variants collected & it would be
nice to have more varieties like Desert King that is so reliable.

@ Bullet, I have Niagara Blk.

There are lots of fig trees in Vancouver area, likely the most popular home grown fruit after apples & plums here.
The immigrant population here is large especially Italians, Iranians, French etc and I am sure there could be gems
to be discovered. I would love to trade my gem variants for something(not Gillette) as reliable as Desert King. The
challenge most of my higher quality variants need the help of green house to ripen.

Ficazanna is another possibility.  Does Gillette not produce or does it produce poor fruit for you?

Rick, it is impossible to live here and not to know Bill. He is a real Fig lover and his enthusiasm for fig/grape growing in his yard is incredible. I traded with him and visited with him a couple of times.  Nice guy indeed!  He does not waste time growing varieties that will not produce fruits, mostly he has BT and Desert King.. I like his method of making the fig tree 'walk'.. he leans the branches down to the grownd to  make it root and let it still be attached to the mother tree.  One of his neighbour hates the figs that drop on her side of the fence. Go figures.

Paul, I remember, Brenda was selling the rooted cuttings for $5.   She had an incredible picture of the fruits on Craigslist...that is how we started communicating. She seems very nice. Her tree is huge.

Thanks for the update about Bill, Grasa. Sounded like an interesting gentleman. BTW thanks for your post about scion-stage grafting....going to try that on some local heirloom stock I have to see if I can meet success with my last couple of White Greek cuttings. Fingers crossed!

Gillette produces abundantly & reliable but taste is just ordinary "sugary". Most of my friends use Gillette to please the little ones.

I have Ficazanna.