You probably have seen fig trees scattered through in Western Washington, but figs, ancient fruit native to the Mediterranean area, are not usually adept to growing in the cool wet winters of this area of Washington. Denny McGaughy can tell you. McGaughy, a retired environmental biologist who lives about 30 miles from Olympia in Elma, tasted his first fig on the banks of the Sacramento River in California and has been in love with the fig, which he calls, “God’s candy,” ever since. Now McGaughy has over 100 fig trees at his Elma home. What he didn’t realize was that one fig tree he had been a previously unidentified variety. McGaughy sent germplasm (the seed or tissue that can be used to develop into another entire plant) to a National Clonal Germplasm Repository in Davis, California, where it was determined that this variety, which he is calling the “Olympian,” although similar to the Latarulla variety, it is genetically unmatched to any of the repository’s collection of 200 fig trees. The collection at the repository has the largest variety of fig trees in the country, perhaps even the world.

McGaughy has collected a variety of trees that thrive in Western Washington, a task not done easily considering the fig’s preference for warm and sunny climates like the Mediterranean. The varieties he grows are acclimated to the wet mild climate of the Pacific Northwest. McGaughy received a piece of the Olympian from a 100 year-old tree from a woman in Olympia, and now has 40 starts of the Olympian. He plans on selling them to nurseries so they can be grown throughout Western Washington.  "


Also see this

http://www.sfgate.com/homeandgarden/article/Hot-figs-to-grow-in-cool-places-3259824.php