The trees I will mention are in their fourth year and are listed in order of desirability to me. 

1  Strawberry Verte:  Hands down my best tree so far in every way except second in productivity so far.  It's the largest healthiest fastest growing tree.  The figs have a stronger "strawberry flavor" than strawberries.  It's more like strawberry jam.  I can hardly wait for my tree to produce enough for me to make jam out of its fruit.  That should happen this year.  It's so good I planted a second tree in my limited space even though I would love to try other kinds of figs too.

2  Celeste:  If I were going strictly by flavor I would put it further down.  But it's number one in productivity.  It's a healthy compact trees with relatively early fruit.  It's fruit is pretty good, but for some reasons the birds really go after this one and leave the other figs alone.  If that's a deal the birds are willing to make, they can have this tree. 

3  Alma:  Delicious sweet fig.  It's the second largest and healthiest looking tree.  Like the other two mentioned above, it has never received even a hint of cold damage.  Last year it was second to Verte in flavor.  Definitely a sweet honey flavor. 

4  Negrone:  Might have been my second favorite fig for flavor had I only had 2013 season to go by.  But it got killed back winter before last and the few fruit it produced last year were not very good for some reason.  It was kind of a puny plant last year.  That winter really shook it up.  It's famed for being winter hardy, but I don't think so.  This year it's doing much better and has a good number of little figs on it, so it might go up in the ratings.  But I don't know about winter hardiness in my Zone 8B. 

5  Black Mission:  It produces some figs every year.  It gets some winter damage every year.  It seems to always be slow to get started in spring and has not grown quite the way one would expect from the literature.  The fruit are pretty good, kind of pecan pie like, but I fruity figs better. 

6  Texas Ever Bearer:  It's my smallest slowest growing tree.  Always the first fruit to ripen every year.  Figs are OK, and sweet.  The tree was in too much shade until just recently.  I had some big nearby trees cut this spring.  Some sunshine might make me like it's fruit better.  It should definitely help it to grow faster.

 7  Large Brown Turkey from Just Fruits and Exotics:  Dug it up and gave it to my cousin.  It was OK, but I would rather have the space for better things.

8  Bornabat:  Ripped it out.  It seems to need the fig wasp. 

Just added:

Nero from Just Fruits and Exotics
Italian Black
Smith

Statesboro GA 30458 Zone 8B

Hi, everybody. My name is Flaboi. I am a fig newbie from Central Florida (Zone 9b) and I find your forum fascinating. I never knew there were so many varieties available. My head is spinning from all this information. Because of the humid climate here, I know that I should choose a closed-end variety, but which one. Any recommendations? Anyone with cuttings available?

I am new to this site and also relatively new to figs.  With that said, I encountered a fig tree that I would like to know more about.
  I live in Oklahoma but I encountered the tree in Alabama in 2007 while I was recovering from surgery at the house of a dear friend.  When summer arrived a neighbor's tree was sharing it's fruit with our property next door over the fence.  It was a huge tree at least 30 feet tall, the figs were delicious and the tree lover in me fell in love.  I had never heard of a fig tree that could sustain weather in mid teens like that found in north Alabama and produce fruit without being protected for the winter.  The tree was totally unprotected and uncared for, the owners had sold the house and the new owners knew nothing about the tree but that didn't stop it from producing gallons of fruit.    
  Two questions, I'm wondering if anyone has heard of a fig tree like this.   Also, I am wondering what would be the best month to collect cuttings so as to try to propagate this tree.  I'll make the trip next year if all goes well.  

   I should have been a little more clear.  
   I thought there were no fig trees that could overwinter outside with temps to the teens.
If there are such trees I would dearly love to know what kind they are.  
I am a long way from this tree and will only get more information on it if it is unique enough to justify the travel. 
    But I'll settle for any fig tree that can survive 10 degrees.  

Thomas:

As you well know you are a long ways from AL and the climates are considerably different. So a fig able to survive 10F in AL might not in OK. The biggest difference is that temperatures in OK vary a lot more in winter than in AL. I've been in western TX for 40 yrs. We vary 50+F every week all winter and 60F isn't all that unusual, 10F to 70F all in one week. That's much harder on plants like figs than steady cold. So while that fig might survive 10F in AL it might not survive 15F in OK. The last two yrs our first freezes in fall have been 21F and 19F. Not a good start and it doesn't improve from there.

Thanks, something else to blame when it doesn't work.  It's always better to know though.
I'd still like to find that tree good to 10F though.  

Chandler, AZ - 85249. I have a bunch of figs, many are small and have not produced yet. But I have a few that have produced some really great figs.

Violette de Bordeaux - Compact grower. Takes AZ summer like a champ. Very long ripening season for me (mid-May to mid-Sept). Small back figs, soft and slightly juicy. Rich and intense fig flavor with notes of raspberry. Complex and wonderful.

Panache - Much more upright grower for me. Take AZ summer heat well, but not quite as well as VdB. Love the fig coloration (light and medium green stripes). Flavor is somewhat similar to VdB but maybe a bit more strawberry instead of raspberry. Very fruity.

Black Jack - Wider grower for me. The Black Jack is a nice tree. The figs are kind of basic fig flavor (not a lot of 'fruity' notes like Panache and VdB). But they are medium size and sweet and turn into a soft-skinned purple. When the tree is mature I find the mid-later season figs to be much better than the early season figs. And they ripen over ~6-8 weeks at my location starting in June. I think they are not grown more because they have a large open eye, which would be cause for spoilage in the humid and rainy South. But for AZ and CA that doesn't happen because of the low humidity and little rain. I also have it in a pot and it gets full sun almost all day long (just a little bit of shade in the very late afternoon) and it takes the heat and sun just fine.

Ischia - Only about 2 ft tall, so no figs off it yet. So I don't know if it is Green Ischia or Black Ischia (want to say green). Good grower and handles heat well.

Celeste - Very small. Not much to say about it yet. But it did survive summer.

Lattarula / Italian Honey Fig - Very small. Not much to say about it yet. But it did survive summer.

I also recently got Col de Dame Gris and Marseilles Black VS and have a Smith Fig on order. Very excited for these three and want to see how they do next year. Also starting a Ronde de Bordeaux cutting.

Had a lot of good figs this year and am looking forward to more variety in the upcoming years!

Hello,Gentle Fig folk,Frogboy here, not new to Figs.but would like to share information and a list of possible figs for the central Texas area.At the moment I live in Austin Texas but will be moving an hour west of Austin.So far I have ......St.Anthony,Lebanese Black,Lebanese Red,.Dark Portuguese ,LSU Purple,Texas Blue Giant,Petite Negra,Celeste,and Three unidentfied at this point.Any more suggestions would be great!

Hi fyvfugs: my mom has small, in pot Black jac & mission figs. Only a few branches on each but they have fruited. Send me a PM.
Meg

Fyvfigs...oops maybe i didnt read the full post. Are u looking for Black Jack & Mission or maybe you r waiting for them to fruit?

Thank a lot everybody! I found here answers to all my questions! I have a tiny collection of figs, but I like Brown Turkey in 5th zone. Hope when my collection extends I will share information with you again!

MvsB Has done very well unprotected in my zone 6 location over the past few years. even top killed I still get great new growth and a good harvest in late summer and early fall. it has even out did hardy Chicago as for as freezing and having a crop.

I went through and categorized all those who had best in their location.  Hope this info is helpful.  I know Suzi asked for something like this.

Dennis,

That is an awesome table, thanks for sharing!

Maryland

Aubique Petite Baud -- 5/5
Black Jack -- 4/5
Conadria -- 3/5
Excel -- 4-5/5
Goutte D'Or -- 5/5
Hardy Chicago -- 3/5
Ischia White -- 5/5
LSU Gold -- 4/5
LSU Purple -- 3-4/5
Marseilles Black VS -- 4-5/5
Peter's Honey -- 5/5
Petite Negri -- 4-5/5
RdB -- 4-5/5
Salem Dark -- 5/5
San Pietro -- 3-4/5
Stella-- 4/5
Texas Everbearing -- 4-5/5
VdB -- 5/5

Wow!!! This is great! Thank you!!!

I kinda thought So Cal was fig heaven. I guess our long growing season and warm wether makes it so :-). Mara, glad to know another So Cali person. Hapoy to share cuttings someday when my trees grow (just started this Sept).

Here is a PDF of the list.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! This is great!

Hi all, I went back and modified the data adding another row showing those cultivars with the highest numbers reported across the US.  The report would be better if more people had submited theirs in areas with no data.  But that's ok.  I think its still a great document.  Enjoy!

Minnesota 55113
zone 4

Only 1 (so far)!
Brown Turkey