We are all aware of the extensive varieties that Jon has and the great area and climate he is blessed with but I was curious as to what others are growing and what their local conditions are like.
 
All of my figs are from Paradise Nursery, they are grown in large pots and moved into my basement to over-winter. Our weather in Kansas City can vary widely, we can be 90 to 105+ in summer and drop to -15 or more in winter, humidity in summer is usually on the heavy side. Rain fall is widely variable too, we had a wet spring and decent rains into mid-summer unlike the 2 previous years when we were too dry. An old saying  is that if you don't like the weather here just wait a few minutes it will change (usually for the worse!). Last week we were in the upper 80's and low 90's, this week we have been low 70's, today did not even make the mid 60's, at night we are down in the upper 40's to low 50's. Next week we are supposed to back in the 80's.

The varieties I am care-taker of ( and the #'s each) are:
Celeste (2)
Italian Honey (3)
Violette de Bordeaux
Brown Turkey
Battaglia Strawberry Verte
Golden Alma
Green Ischia
Jack's Quarter Pounder
Conadria (2)
Magnolia

Have harvested figs from the Celeste (good and sweet), Italian Honey (very sweet), Battaglia Strawberry Verte (very good !) and Violette de Bordeaux (very good until the  weather changed to cooler!). All the others have figs growing but I doubt they will ripen before fall or if they do will be mediocre at best. Hopefully next year they may be more in sync with our zone, but if not will still be enjoyed for their beauty.
So I have bared the contents of my fig obsession and the perils of nature I deal with, whats your reply?

Woody.

Hi Woody,

I have the following, but some* have not fruited yet. These are in  northern Georgia.
Only Peter's Honey and Brown Turkey are still bearing, both also have a lot of green figs that won't ripen before frost.
 The last few Peter's Honey have had a nice large drop of honey to seal the open eye.

Brown Turkey
Celeste
Peter's Honey
Hardy Chicago*
Violette de Bordeaux* (EL)
Marseilles* (EL)
"Giant" Celeste

scott

Veritable Fig newbie here in Northern California inland valley habitat, USDA zone 8b, sunset zone 14. Hot searing summers with rainy season often referred to as winter, rarely getting colder than 27f. and only mornings are frosty.
Spring of 06 I cut two somewhat rooted sprouts from what I,m told was White Genoa.  Growing well by mid summer I planted them out and they have done fine. One of them even has about six small green fruit I noticed a few weeks ago.
They are being espaliered on a trellis as visual barrier to neighbors, room for about ten plants more at a 3' spacing.
Brian

I really envy those growers who don't have to contend with harsh winters. I would like to be able to plant my trees in-ground and am considering a couple of Hardy Chicago from Hartmann's to plant outside as an experiment. Would still have to winterize them but that would be better than moving them into the basement. Don't know about trying any of the others in-ground, I doubt they would be hardy enough even with protection.

Dan, that is a nice collection. You must have some decent ground space for all those. Out of all those do you have one that really stands out for flavor and performance?

Brian, watch out for the fig bug, once you start with a couple you just want to try more and before long you are addicted ; )
Using them for a privacy hedge is a good idea, you get a visual break and fruit too. I used bamboo for the purpose of blocking out a neighbor, worked great and its over 20 feet tall now. Do you plan on using cuttings of the same type or adding some different varieties?

Scott, are all of yours planted in the ground? I have a good friend just outside of Atlanta, he tells me that the weather stays pretty mild there in winter, rarely much frost and that snow is even rarer. Since you are probably north of there you may get it a little worse. Several of mine also have figlets that won't ripen before the cold weather hits us. Hate to see them lost but it gives hope for more next year. Do any of your varieties seem to fare better through the winter (excluding Hardy Chicago) and do well in the heat and humidity of summer?

Woody.

Hello,
I live in East Tx. Z8

I have the following fig trees in ground.

Golden Alma

Tx. Everbearing

Celeste

Black Mission

They all have fruit on them now.

(PS Jon, I will get in touch with you when the trees go dormant)

Cecil

Following is a list of my cultivars - most of them anyway! Joe H.

Adriatic

Alma

Atreano

Aunt Alma's Fig (Undetermined Variety)

Banana (Kadota)

Binella (Kadota)

Black Jack

Blue Giant

Bourjasotte Grise

Breva (Higo Negro)

Brunswick

Calimyrna

Celeste

Col De Dame Noire

Conadria

Deanna

Desert King

      Diredo

Dotatto (Kadota - Lowes)

Double Header

Eastern Brown Turkey

Excel

Fico Di Ruvo

Flanders

Galbun

Gentile

Giant Amber

Golden Celeste

Green Ischia

Gulbun

Hardy Chicago

Harry's Fig (Poulette?)

Jurupa

Hollier

LSU Gold

LSU Purple

Marseilles Italian Golden Honey Fig

Mary Lane

Mission

Nazarti

Nero Caesar

Panachee

Patrick's Supergiant (Malcom's Supergiant)

Royal Vineyard (Drap D'or)  

Sierra (6-38W)

Stanford Caprifig

Sultane

Tena

Terry's Fig (Celeste)

Verte

Violette De Bordeaux

Vista Mission

White Texas Everbearing 

Joe,
It looks like your trying to be the Texas equivalent of Jon's nursery! You must spend a lot of time taking care of all those. My wife thinks I spend too much time on the few I have now, she wouldn't see me for days if I had a collection like yours. Very impressive list, the photos that you have posted on the GW FF look like you have a great area for planting all those.

Cecil,
Have you had any problems from the weather? It looked like east Texas got quite a bit of rainfall this season. Hope it wasn't so bad as to ruin your crop.

Woody.

Hey, Woody!

My wife Tina, who is Vietnamese, just shakes her head and says, "What you do with so many figs? I call you Mr. Fig!" I spend entirely too much time fooling with them, but since I have a "collecting gene", at least I can eat the fruit of my collection!

BTW, I remembered several more figs in my collection: Battaglia Green, Hunt, Lyndhurst White, Sal's Fig and several additional heirloom sources of Celeste.

Joe

Hi Woody,

I only have Brown Turkey (2) and "Giant" Celeste (I don't think it is the Louisiana Giant Celeste, just an oddball sold to me as Celeste) in the ground. The rest are in pots, but I am plotting on sneaking some into some sunny spots in the yard. Celeste and Brown Turkey have tasted the best and done the best for me so far, but most trees are still young. The season in mild here and we might have one snow a winter (or not). Fig trees can grow quite large (my neighbor has a brown turkey 25 feet tall). We did have a late freeze this spring that took all the leaves off the fig trees, but they recovered and fruited. I envy you guys your large collections.

Scott

Hi Woody,

We have had a lot of rain around here for sure!

The rain seemed to affect the Black Mission more than the others!

Some of the BM were real good, some were not.

Cecil

Hy Fig Friends:
I have Many figs But not all of them Are good for my area.:
Adaptatin to My climate(good overall):Sal's #1,Marseilles Blk,H.Chicago,Maryland Brn Trk.Sicilian Dark#11
Best Flavor,to my Taste buds:Violette de Bordeaux,Col de Dame,Adriatic,Blue Celeste,Desert King(Breba),Barnisotte Blk,Gino's fig,Mission(from Malta-2),Black Ischia,Wht Marseilles,Aubique Petite,Beall,ZinGarella,Bayernfeige(Breba only,main crop was mediocre).

Young Trees That show Promise(unproven yet),but have fruits on them,with chance to mature till end of season:Stella,Sal's #2,English Brn Trk.,Black Sicilian,DFIC17Brn.Trk.,LSU Gold,Guilbeau .

  ***Note*** I will keep amending this post as the season are getting to a close in Nov.,Highlitning the cultivars that are most promissing.I do have about 70 cultivars in trial!!!

My figs and I are in San Jose, CA. Sunset zone 16, USDA zone 9, I think. My husband and I moved here 3 years ago from Michigan and I couldn't wait to plant figs!

The current holdings are:
Brown Turkey
Black Jack
Flanders
Kadota
Celestial
Mission
Lampiera
Blue Giant
Excell
Peter's Honey
Bourjassote Grise (sp?)
Desert King
Osborn Prolific
Panache
Janice
Mystery fig 1- lost the tag
Mystery fig 2 - labeled Violette but has medium size, green fruit so its probably not a  Violette.
Mystery fig 3 - My husband found it under our back deck 2 years ago. He dug it up, planted it and it grew rapidly into a bush about 6 x 6 x 6 feet, no fruit last year. Leaves with 5 deeply cut lobes and this year green fruit that has not matured yet. When I figure out how to post a picture maybe someone can ID it for me.

The Brown Turkey, and Black Jack are in ground and have been putting out enough fruit this year that I have had plenty for me and have been able to give some away. I think they taste just so-so but everyone I have given them to asks for more so I guess they are not too bad.
The Flanders and Kadota are also in ground and producing ok amounts of fruits.
The rest are still in pots or have been in ground only a short time, or were slowed down by the retched gophers.
I was very impressed with the flavor of the King figs, and have been blown away by the Lampiera's figs. So far they are my favorite.

Gloria

hi woody,

the fig bug bit.  i got my first plant from Edible Landscaping in the fall of 2005, a Hardy Chicago.  the following spring i got Italian Honey and Violette de Bordeaux from Burntridge.  Later that year - 2006 - i picked several small purple figs, don't remember now which variety.  some tasted terrible but one tasted good.  also had one Italian Honey which was unbelievably delicious.  those were the first fresh figs i had ever tasted.

they are all three growing in large tubs and spent last winter in the unheated side of our hoophouse.  when it got very cold, they were draped with a plastic sheet over pvc framing.  the hoophouse is divided into a north and south side, with the south being heated slightly, thermostat set at fifty degrees.  daytime gets extremely hot on the south side so we vent to the north and sometimes open a window.

they stayed inside this summer and this year i started picking Italian Honey in June and when the dark ones started ripening i was disgusted with the taste and gave them away.  when the green ones were all gone, i thought the dark ones tasted pretty good.  now that the dark ones are all gone, it is hard to look at the photos from Jon with all that sweet nectar oozing out.  i guess because they were in the hoophouse, ours all ripened quite early, all were gone by the end of August.

a couple weeks ago we traveled to the Fruit Experiment Station in south Missouri and traded for a King and Alma.  i have a request in to Jon for several more varieties.  my husband thinks the hoophouse is a jungle now with the papaya trees taking over - the figs are quite tame in comparison.  when i get some cuttings growing, i am going to put some trees outdoors in the ground to see what might survive here in our area about an hour east of Kansas City.

elizabeth

edit Nov. 24, 2007
last week i received the following from jon:
Excel / Hollier / LSU Purple / Nero / "unknown" Pastiliere

Years ago I had bought a "Fig Tree" from a local discount store (turned out to be a Celeste).  They were so good I started looking for other figs that would produce in Rhode Island Z 6a. Back in the "old days" we didn't have computer communication - getting information was very difficult and slow and a lot of the figs didn't do well here north of Providence.  Circumstances changed and I couldn't care for all my figs and gave most of them away.
About a year ago I went on to the FF looking for Celeste types - I wanted "A" fig tree.  LOL  Here I am a year later with a raging, full blown fig addiction (and twenty five fig varieties). 
Alma 
Bayernfeige Violetta FMV

Black Mission

Caserta FMV (my name - unknown Italian fig)

Celeste  

Conadria  

English Brown Turkey

Ficazzana

Florea

Galbun FMV

Grace (my name - unknown Portuguese fig)

Hardy Chicago

Jack Thomas’ Quarter Pounder

Lattarula (Italian Honey) 

LSU Everbearing

LSU Gold

Marseilles Black (Edit 12-3-07)

O’Rourke (LSU Improved Celeste) #1 (edit: Not true to description)

O’Rourke (LSU Improved Celeste) #2 FMV (edit: Not true to description)

LSU Purple

Negronne  (FMV ?)

Noire de Caromb (?)

Neveralla  FMV

Paradiso FMV

Sal’s (Edit 11/2/07: This is more correctly Robin's Sicilian Black)

Takoma Violet  FMV

Weeping Fig

 Many thanks for all the information sharing.

It appears so many of us start out innocently with just one or two and then become addicted. After eating the imported "rocks" from Greece for many years, I progressed to better imports from Turkey, then the Jordanian market that I go to came up with some fresh figs one fall, they were about the size and shape of Celeste but with a dark purple (almost black) color and red inside.I was hooked. They could not tell me what kind they were or who grew them, they bought them from their supplier in Chicago (they didn't look quite like the shape of Hardy Chicago though), they would drive up there every week for stock. I decided I would have to grow my own, I knew some of the old Italian families had grown figs in our neighborhood many years ago but all of them have died off or moved away and I could not locate  any local trees. After  checking the  internet  I found the GW FF and read about them, seemed that the best place to get good ones was from "Paradise Nursery".
Placed an order for a Celeste and an Italian Honey, loved them and had to get more so the next season (and sadly last for Paradise) I added the rest of my collection.
Due to space limitations  for over-wintering I  doubt that  there will be  room for much more . I guess that of all that things in life that can become an obsession, at least these are edible and good for you, unlike my wifes Hazel/Atlas glass collection, might be able to convince her to let me eat figs off of some antique plates!
It is very heartening to see how many wonderful folks are involved in this adventure, sharing the highs and lows over such a humble and ancient  treat. Thankfully we have a wealth of advice from the more experienced growers who I am sure at times have to tolerate those of us (like me) who are still learning. With all the different variables of weather, soil and critters we still hold on to our passion for figs and persevere. 
I wish I had become involved with figs a lot sooner and the federation of growers too.

Elizabeth,
Where about "east" of KC are you located? Off of I-70? I will keep you in mind when I can get some starts off of my Strawberry Verte, I have decided to add a couple of Hardy Chicago from Hartmann's Nursery next spring along with a few other items from them, will plant one outside and keep one potted (as a back up). I was impressed with the quality of the blueberry plants I got this spring from them and have read that their HC is the same as EL's and is a true one. That will fill out my collection, at least until I can find more room for winter storage ( or locate the "ONE" must have and can't live without variety!!!).

To all you that have read, responded or will respond to this thread "THANK YOU", seeing what others are accomplishing adds encouragement to the rest.
Woody.
P.S.: As some of you have probably noticed I have a bad habit of running on, I am sorry if this has bothered any body, I tend to do the same thing when discussing ferrets or food/cooking which are some of my other "addictions".

Here is an Italian Golden Honey fig from Paradise Nursery (Thanks Rob & Sybil) showing different stages of ripeness. I have several varities from Paradise and Belleclare. I will be posting pic of all of them soon.

I lived in Northwest Arkansas.  In Octoer of 2006 I went to visit my parents in New Jersey. While there I visited Herman.  He gave me some very nice varities of figs.  After that visit the fig bug bit.  I have about 85 fig trees.  About half are unknown that I got from friends, relitives, and neighbors.  I have twenty four planted in my yard right now.  The rest are in pots.  The potted ones I plan on planting next spring.  I have a big yard.  The following are the known fig varities.

ALMA (one from two different sources)
ATREANO
BEALL  (ON ORDER)
BLACK SPANISH
BROWN TURKEY
BROWN TURKEY, DFIS 17
BROWN TURKEY, MD (from Herman)
BRUNSWICK
CELESTE (three from different sources)
COL DE DAME
DANNY'S DELIGHT
DESERT KING
EXCEL
HARDY CHICAGO
HUNT
KADOTA
LATTARULLA
LSU EVERBEARING
LSU GOLD
LSU PURPLE
MARSEILLES, BLACK
MARSEILLES, WHITE
NEGRONNE
PARADISO
PETER'S HONEY
PETITE NEGRI
SAL'S #1
SICILIAN BLACK (on order)
SMITH
STELLA
TASHKENT
TEXAS EVERBEARING
VERNINO
VERN'S BROWN TURKEY
WHITE GENOA

Vern

Hi all

Out of curiosity, I checked all the posts showing fig varieties ownership in this thread (as of today) and came up with the following results. It is not detailed because the search was done with the main name (such as Celeste or Brown Turkey) but ignoring other variable attributes or sourcing or origin etc. Also, all ownership of the same type of the main varieties were lumped as “one” (i.e 3 different varieties of Celeste were counted as ‘one’ i.e ownership of Celeste):

Fig Type                       Ownership (Out of 9)   

Celeste                         8

Brown Turkey                    7

Hardy Chicago                   5

Black Mission (Mission)         5

Alma                            5

LSU Purple                      4

LSU Gold                        4

Violette de Boudeaux            4

Excel                           4

And------------------

(Brunswick, Conadria, Desert King (King), Kadota (Kadotta), Marseilles, Texas Bearing)- - - - - - ----- 3 each                     

(Dauphine, Hollier, Italian Honey, Peter’s Honey, Latarulla (Lattarulla),Panache, Sultane) - - - - - - ------  2 each

At least this exercise shows the top 4 fig varieties for cold climate in the top five (at least based on the listed ownership here ).

I think I have both Marseilles (EL) and Peter's Honey (Monrovia). I haven't had any figs from the Marseilles yet, but the leaves are definitely different and the Marseilles seems to be a more energetic grower.

Scott

Unfortunately I had almost no time to look after my figs and your
inquiries concerning some trades in the past few months.

Beyond it I've managed to crash the harddisk of my computer, so
that all my mails were gone into the virtual nirvana.

As far as I can remember there were requests from Gene, Gorgi,
Henry (?) and Dan (?).

I apologize for the lack of my answers and if these persons are
still interested in some trades, then I ask for a private Message
over this forum.

Thanks for your understanding.

P.S. I'll update the list of my varieties in the next days.

Brown Turkey, English Brown Turkey, Celeste, Texas Everbearing, Danny's Delight, Stella, Unknown Pastillier, Panache, Bella, Bournabat (barely alive) 6 different local unknowns, Vdb, Kadota in Dallas area of Texas. I need to get with the program. I fell off the map for a while :(  Kim

German FF, we had exchanged some emails also!