My dear forum friends. It is the time of the year to give my four inground Celeste trees a nice hair cut so I desided to make all those cuttings available to everyone who would like to share my experience with them! As far as the names go.... Here's "The story of two Figs!" The first two trees were rescued from a Home Depot lot where they were laying thrown on their side and clearly neglected, half bareroot and with only a couple of sorry looking leaves on them. It was spring of 2011and right after the $78 rescue they were planted inground. To thank me ,they produced a couple of handfuls of very sweat figs that first year. The catch you ask? They were labeled as "Brown Turkey", but ended up being Celeste. By now they are way over 12 feet tall,growing as multi trunk trees(4 each) and this past season produced a lot of sweet and very juicy figs. Clearly our family's favorite fig. They rippened a heavy main crop within the last three weeks of August with a second very light and sporadic main crop through the end of September. Both trees are identical in every comparison. Growth habbit, bark coloration , leaf shape ,size and color, fruit shape,size and taste. I call them the Celeste HD since they were bought at the Home Depot ,to help those who choose to share them with me, identify them. The other two were bought from Walmart, out of all places ,in very early spring of 2012. For the record, they were very well cared for and in great shape when found at the store and cuddos to Walmart for that. They were 4 feet tall, about 1inch caliper and only $17 each so I could NOT pass!!! They were labeled correctly as Celeste and they differ from the HD trees in bark color( their bark is more on the gray side), growth rate and patern( they are more dwarf like) . Inground since the purchase , they are now about 6 feet tall with three trunks each and a very nice compact frame. The fruit is similar in shape and color to the HD trees but taste is considerably different . More figgy ,less juicy but sweet and ( imo) with a hint of citrus mixed in the flavor. The catch?? They drop about half of the fruit here in GA. Both trees bought at Walmart are identical in every aspect! I hope the fruit drop improves with age. I realy like the flavor. These are the Celeste WM. All four trees have proven to be very cold Hardy since they survived the winter of 13-14 with NO die back. I offer four cuttings of each variety for a total of eight for $10 . You can pay through PayPal at Christosk1@bellsouth.net Please do not forget to include your mailing address. Thanks once again for your time.

This is a good offer Chris, I would love to accept but I already have more than I should. This is a great deal for all members, especially newbies.

Way to go, Chris!  Interesting observations on your big box figs as well.

Thank Wayne. I Know exactly how you feel. I was thinking about the trade option also but I ended up being so many cuttings!!!! I might end up sleeping in the garage if I bring in any more!! Thanks Jesse. Nothing but good things from the big box stores, even though they are misidentified regularly. You can,t beat the bang for the buck! I started grafting on the WM trees yesterday. Three Grafts so far. They make for a very nice and robust,yet compact platform . Maybe something for the friends up noth to think about!

I bought a one-gallon from a big box that was labeled Hardy Chicago. It wasn't very hardy. I didn't survive the first winter in the garage. I have since replaced it with a more reliably identified HC. The big box was a great bargain for $10, but if it was mislabeled, was it the worth of an unknown?

Great Offer Chris! Our newer Forum members should really take advantage of this...Very Nice of you :)

Hey Dale. Sorry to hear about your loss. In your case it did not work out. I bought two of those CHfrom HD also and they are doing great and are very consistent with the variety characteristics.

Nice offer Chris but I'm overrun with cuttings from all the generous folks here. I had to buy a second propagation chamber to root all the cuttings I received from the folks here and I still haven't received my UCD order yet.

You're Unk Lenora Black cuttings are starting to show signs of growth. The ones from the small tree appear to waking up first.

Thanks Frank. Doing my best to spread the love. They are both very easy to root and grow fast. My last years cuttings from the HD tree grew to over three feet tall. One was a single node cutting that I just stuck in a 4"x4" pot in potting soil because I felt bad to throw out. Fig Lord works in mysterious ways:)

No problems Kevin. Thanks for the update. I'm observing the same results from the Lenora Ukns . The little guy cuttings seam quicker to awake. I missed the UCD offer this year. Took me a while to figure it out but I got some great cuttings from some awesome forum friends. Is it warming up any up there?

I think we have a couple more weeks of periodic nighttime lows below 10 before we see any real warm up. So long as we don't get any more snow storms that are measured in feet vs inches we'll be ok. 

Lol, true that. Stay warm. Better days are coming !!!

The packages went out this morning . They should arrive by Tuesday. Thanks for your support. There are still quite a few cuttings left so please let me know!

Nice offer, Chris. Sent payment by Paypal.
Thank you.
Mathew

Thanks very much Mathew,payment received,package gone. You should get it by Thursday.
welcome to the forum and best of luck growing.

Thanks very much Ken. Got your package ready to go. Will send out tomorrow morning.

Hi Chris, Got the cuttings. It was so very nice of you to add the extra black mission cuttings! Thank you very much.

Chris,

    Glad your Hardy Chicagos from HD worked out. You got the prize. My two cuttings are both rooting, so I am excited for spring to come.

Thank you Mathew! I hope they all grow and produce lots and lots of figs for you!

Thanks Dale , I got lucky on those! Good luck with your cuttings, H C is a very nice fig!