Hello!

This has been a terrible year here for growing pretty much everything,  Finally, though, I'm getting my main crop off of the natalina figs I got from Grimo Nut Nursery.  They taste a lot like Hardy Chicago. 

I've Googled Natalina to find out more about them, but I don't come up with much.  Anyone know more about them?

Don't know how much help this video review of Natalina will be to you. It does seem to be a cold hardy variety and the figs are pretty. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_vFoZWabLE

Here's a 2010 thread about Natalina that may be helpful: https://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/natalina-4283758

Unfortunately I can't say anything positive to this variety. My 5 years old plant keeps dropping most of its figs (tried growing in ground then moved it to container), the rest is very small and not much tasty. It will be a nice rootstock for grafting.

I've got some 2nd-year Natalina trees that I started from cuttings.  It seems roughly the same as any other dark Mt Etna. A knowledgeable friend likened the variety to Marseilles Black.  My trees have produced a very few, small, tasty blue-black figs.  I can say for sure that the first ripening date is not near Christmas!  I picked one here this year on 9/3.  Possibly in the very dry conditions of its native Puglia it ripens some figs much later.  In any case, so far it has been roughly as vigorous a grower as other MEs but less fruitful. 

So Natalina is not the same as the very late variety? Synonym Vernino, Pasquale?

I can't say whether Natalina ripens very late figs in Italy.  All I can say is that my Natalinas (in pots) ripen their first figs here roughly beginning of Sept.  If it is like other Mt Etnas, when grown in-ground it will continue to ripen until weather gets cold, roughly mid October here. 

My Natalina is from Grimo, it's a dark, almost black fig. 

Figs will drop their fruit when under stress.  
Maybe it doesn't like the location or it dried out when it was producing the figs?

Hey Pino, ahh that makes sense. I thought that the late Natalina was dark but I'm glad to know it is different than the dark Natalina and actually is late. Thanks for that info as Ive been looking for the real fico Natalina that is late.

The Scicilian Natalina Nera fruit is very late, almost as late as the Black Madeira and perhaps later. Never really paid attention to the ripening dates, but when all my trees are done this one is still ripening fruit through November/December. It's a common fig and does not drop its fruit.
You can see that some leaves have three lobes and some have five. This is one of the reasons, it's hard to identify fig trees simply by their leaves.


This Next photo is of the fruit taken today. It's a tight eye and a very tasty fig if the birds leave it alone.
I've had birds attack green unripe figs this year and did major damage to my crop.
If you want to eat figs, Make sure you come up with a good early protection plan for your crop. By simply throwing a net on my trees, I took the lazy approach and it did not stop the birds from picking through the net.
Here's what's left on my branch. It was full of fruit but the figs kept disappearing on a daily basis, as I was too busy and let it happen.

Thanks for all the feedback everyone.  This natalina is definitely not the Italian type.  It does like to drop its fruit green, but the fruit I have gotten off of it have tasted good - like Hardy Chicago.