I'm around Croydon/Crystal Palace area. Flavour is pretty much king for me at the moment (as long as the yield isn't too bad), though I am in need of something a bit bushy, as I'm hoping to use a couple of trees as a privacy screen for downstairs' courtyard (the blueberries that are trying to do the job at the moment are leaving a lot to be desired!). The Excel and Brunswick are in the lead for that job at the moment - Violette Dauphine probably has the best growth for it (vigorous and chunky leaves), but I don't trust her fruiting if I move her away from her wall.

I hope to have a better idea of the gaps in my collection once I've been able to sample some fruit. Unfortunately unless that main crop materialises PDQ it looks like it may be another year's wait :-(, there are some promising looking bumps forming, though I've a sinking feeling they may be mostly branch.

@ Woodman,
Have you tried pinching off the tops of new growth ?
Pinch off some soft growth, making sure to leave room for some new side shoots.
Try a couple of stems to see if this will force fruiting.

I'm fully pinched :-) hence the hawk-like watching of any little nubs I see on the stems checking to see if a baby fruit pops out

Croydon/Crstl Pal. is not too far from me (New Eltham/Sidcup area). Might be able somehow to contrive to get a couple of ripe samples to you to try b4 you commit. I agree with you about flavour, but in our unreliable summers I'm sometimes grateful just to get a decent crop that has a more than acceptable flavour. My working hypothesis is that the better the flavour, the less 'giving' the tree. That's why I've nicknamed my unknown TbF 'Tasty but Fussy'.  

Could be good - it's always nice to get a bit of confirmation as to what is going to thrive in an area - pretty much the best information you can get otherwise is 'stick with Brown Turkey'.

Noticed there's an e-bayer at the other end of London selling some unnamed figs of supposed Turkish/Persian origin which could be interesting (username papapari) including a very strange looking one that produces about 1" fruits. I've nothing against unknowns, but as you don't even get the taste description that you would otherwise get on 'named' varieties it's nice to know what to expect before investing the time/space.

Re your other thread: could your aubergine Cypriot fig be Melanzana? I remembered seeing something named Aubergine in the variety database before when looking something up. There's also Patlican from Turkey, but no pics.

Desert king is reliable here in the UK. I am also having great results with madeleine de deux saisons, here is a picture of the breba on it.

Whereabouts did you get hold of the King? I've been rummaging around for a while but not found it listed anywhere.

I started my dks from cuttings a few years back, but my uncle has 5-6 trees of a local Italian variety in his garden and it looks the same as dk, they reliably produce every year and usually have many figs, if you want some cuttings just message me next spring. dk or local Italian,(they look the same to me)

From my limited experience of growing figs in sunny england, going for trees that produce good breba crop is a must if you want to eat figs every year. If you want to try main crop fig trees then I would remove all breba crop from it as soon as they start to grow. And pinch every 5-6 leaves.

If your looking for cuttings in London this might help.
Needs to be opened in browser and not the google app as it does not support layers.

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&t=h&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=107469309022694680995.00046a5adca1d2f4ceb72

As long as I remember that would be great. Early spring before bud break I presume?

My trees aborted almost all of their breba this year (Brunswick still hanging on with a couple), so my only hope is that the weather has been mild enough to get an early kick-start to get a bit of a main at least. The heating effect of being in the middle of a big city should help a bit too.

Interesting map, not too much near me but there is a tree in the city that I'll try to make the effort to check out when it's fruiting

Hello guys. Yesterday I took a few cuttings from the tree. Anyone has experience with this variety? Or anyone has seen / tasted ripe figs on / from this tree? Thank you.

Hello petrpan. I promised Luke I would get him (and me) some cuttings yonks ago, from this and another London fig tree - which I think is on church grounds, if memory serves. Unfortunately, still haven't got 'round to it yet. 

I have no idea what variety it might be, but one idea is to visit again around mid-August to see what kind of fruit it produces, and whether it's even edible. There's a large privately owned tree about a mile from where I live that produces inedible fruit, so presumably it's a caprifig. If the Chelsea tree is also a caprifig, I would hafta give it a miss as far as cuttings are concerned. 

Did you have to get permission to take your cuttings?

Hello loquat1, I actually just jumped over the fence. Btw I opened one of the Bigger figs and it was empty. Don't know how to describe it, but i didn't observe any flowers or seeds inside, just air gap.. This would indicate that the figs won't be edible. I then just don't understand why would some online shops sell it.. (I'm in London on business trip).

Yeah, that's odd alright, but not necessarily an indication of what it will be like once the fruit has ripened. Who knows, it might 'fill out' later in the season, tho I admit that does not seem unlikely. I've diarized a mid-August reccy to see what the ripe fruit is like, & whether it's worth the candle. If it turns out to be a decent fruit, I can then take some cuttings.

I wasn't aware that cuttings from this tree were being sold on-line. It could be just a scam selling cuttings for a worthless tree that produces dud fruit. Then again, some ppl might want it for its decorative value, tho personally I would avoid a deciduous tree for that purpose.

PS I'd be slightly worried about jumping over a fence. Is it private land that's fenced-off? If so, there's always the risk of trespass, getting caught, & possible legal consequences.

I think I'd prefer to get the permission of the owner first if I can find out who that is. 

hehe, I think the land belongs to the city. Yet, there is a fence and wall. I just jumped over the wall. To be honest didn't really feel like doing something bad.. But obviously having a permission is always bettter.
I will try to root the cuttings and if someone would be so kind to report back in the summer about the fruit quality, I would be very thankful. Btw I tasted two days ago some figs from the fig tree at Byng Church and two were already slightly sweet.
loquat1: I know it's a long shot, but I am staying this week around Euston station and I noticed in some other discussion that you had some black / dark purple variety (can't remember exactly the variety) in possession. If you had some cuttings you wouldn't mind selling, I would buy two. 

If you are referring to my Greek Βασιλικό Μαύρο (Vasiliko Mavro, rough translation = Royal Black), unfortunately I removed all the growing shoots last year to stop it growing any higher, and I didn't pot them. I was a bit too busy at the time, but now I regret not doing so. It was a mistake, coz now I only have the one tree of that variety, and there are no new shoots - yet.

If you are referring to my Italian Purple or 'Brown Turkey' (allegedly), cuttings are plentiful, and I don't charge for them. I'm not a commercial outfit, and I even pay p&p myself. My only concern is whether they'll 'take' this time of year, coz they're in full swing, so to speak. Most of the foliage has also suffered frost damage - I didn't take some basic precautions prior to the recent frosts, and I've a feeling that will adversely affect this year's crop.

But if your eye is on the VM, then you might hafta wait till next year (or maybe even longer) before you'll get any cuttings from it.

Where are you based when you're not in London?

Costas it's great to see you posting again,I've enjoyed reading all your old threads,I have an interest in Cypriot varieties so your contributions were of particular interest.

I don't have the Chelse fig,few people in the 'fig community do'.It use to be really expensive(like£30) when it first came out but now it's nearing half that ( https://www.gardenbargains.com/item-p-340019/the-chelsea-fig-standard-tree ).

I've not bought it because no one seems to know anything about it and I too and getting a bit white-fig heavy.I would be really interested in hearing from anyone actually growing it,if not I might shell out for one at some point out of curiosity.

Petrpan,do you have the commercial Chelsea fig to compare?

Hello haslam, & thx for the kind words.

If you can wait for the results of my reccy in mid-August before you shell out on a possibly worthless variety, you might be well-advised to do so. I have no idea what colour this fig ripens to, so assuming I can find some ripe samples, I'll report back here with pics and taste description, etc.

I'll also do a reccy on the other tree Luke mentioned to me, though that might be another thread or a pm/e-mail. I'll report back on that too. If Luke doesn't mind, I'll review the contents of this thread later, and if it's not mentioned I'll post his description here as well for the sake of completeness. 

Howzat?

Howzat,sounds good.Debit card staying in my pocket!. I'm curious as to whether what is being sold will even turn out the same as the real Chelsea fig,could just be a marketing ploy-if it is the same,at the end of the day it should be Chelsea 'Unk because that's just what it is-and I've got plenty of those already lol.

You never know,it could be exceptional, or it could be a goat of a fig,either way is UK folks would be interested to read about it.

Funny you should say that, coz my Gk yellow looks nothing like it does in Greece. The same fig grows much larger here, a different shape, and only a hint of a yellow blush on a mainly light green background.

Very surprised, and I think it's proof of the difference that factors like soil & climate can make to a fig's appearance. The taste was still fantastic tho. One of my best.

haslamhulme: unfortunatelly not. I heard for the first time about this fig only last week.

loquat1: I meant the italian purple (I remember now seeing it written here). When I'm not in London I am usually in Czech Republic:)) I definitely don't want you to send me any cuttings. If you were based not so far away from Euston - London I would be happy for a cutting (I would come to pick it up), but if not, let's leave it. I will try to get a dark variety eventually in my home country. There are also some crazy people like me who fell in love with figs.
PS. today I visited couple more fig trees in London and I probably panicked prematurely. All of them (3) had also empty figs with some small flower starters (or how to call it) inside. I think in the end the Chelsea fig was the same as these. So hopefully the figs will mature into edible figs. It may happen (not really sure though) that I will be coming back to London for a week in summer. And if so I will definitely visit the Chelsea fig to repor backt what kind of fruit it is bearing, unless someone does that before me.
PPS. I know it's not the best time of the year to take cuttings, but basically I am not really sure if I will ever be back to London again.. :)

@ petrpan - Unfortunately, your post is largely unreadable. Would you mind posting again please? Preferably in English, not Czech!!!

Hey all, am sure I" read" that it was a common fig and I seem to remember it might be a white variety but that's only what I remember. The other fig church yard one is supposed to be very nice, here is the article enjoy 😀. https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/sep/21/alys-fowler-fig-trees

I live in New Eltham, SE London. Your best route to me is probably via London Bridge or Lewisham, but I'll check my maps & let you know. If you can pm me your e-mail address, I can then give you my full address.

You're welcome to join us for some lunch as well if you have no other plans.