Recently I had occasion to pass thru Tennessee and to my surprise went within 20 miles of Oak Ridge.  I first learned of the TM fig some years ago when I found a picture of it on the web, the caption saying that it grew on the lawn of a Vet Hospital in Oak Ridge.  By identifying the surroundings and calling the city horticulturist I learned where the fig was.

So, we drove to Oak ridge, and after asking a few questions I recalled the name of the vet clinic and went there.  I was made welcome and told to examine the tree to my hear's content, but that the extreme winter had reduced it to roots, and it was coming out from the ground.  Exactly as my figs did here in Oklahoma.

LOL, I spoke with a young man in Oak Ridge and asked him about their climate.  He told me that if they had two inches of snow they could count on having the schools closed.  He went on to tell me things that made me think he and I lived in the same town. 

At any ate, the Tennessee Mountain Fig lives on the sloping lawn of the Jackson Square Vet Clinic in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.  The people there are very nice and surely will not mind your looking at a fine example of the TMF.  

Well; what a disappointment it is.  A fine tree, figs as big as eggs.

BUT; open eye, and even a little shower here sours the fig.  Further, it is just now ripening, almost the middle of October, and we have no more hot days to bring them on.  Once the begin to sour little wasps about the size of a honeybee attack them---may as well, the figs are of no use to me.  I hate losing this tree--paid $50 for it as I recall, but it is useless in this climate, 35 miles S. of Tulsa, OK.

This leaves me with nothing but a couple of no-name-from-cuttings whose identity I've lost, a really nice Celeste, a Hardy Chicago, a Pakistani Black and a Plattner Violetta.  The last four are all in the ground.

The Celeste makes a good fig here, small, about the size of a quarter, but sweet.  The Hardy Chicago has no taste worth mentioning, the Pak Black is not much larger than the Celeste and ripening so late that I may never taste one.  (I'm going to let it grow another year to see if it improves as the tree matures) 

The Violetta just went into the ground this year, has only a branch or two (it nearly froze in its pot last winter) but it has one nice fig on it, larger than the Celeste.  Since it is said to be a variant of Celeste I expect it to be sweet when picked in the next day or two.

When I sent my potted figs away my daughter took a Texas Everbearing that had made really nice, big figs in late summer.  I need to get that one back.





  

LOL, I see them listed by nurseries under both names.

Been a while since I've been in here, but I wanted to report some results from the cold edge of zone 7, about 35 miles S. of Tulsa, OK.

I've about given up growing potted figs---way too much work for the crop.  I've given almost all of them to my kids and friends in Texas.

I had a Plattner Violetta in a large terra cotta pot that I left out on the SE side of my house last winter.  We had at least one night of minus ten F.  The plant died to its roots, I set it in the yard and it is coming back.  Next year it should bear again. 

I have a Celeste and a Joe Morle Paradiso in a bed on the S. side of my house, next to a brick wall.  Despite the cold, neither froze back and the Celeste is bearing good fruit.  The Paradiso is carrying figs but has not ripened one yet. 

Two figs out by my barn, planted on the S. side of the building, suffered some damage but came thru and are setting fruit.  One, the Hardy Chicago had a few ripe fruit a month ago, ripening others now.   The other fig is a Pakistan Black.  It suffered more damage but is setting fruit, not yet ripe. 

As for fruit quality, none exceed the Paradiso--I got a few figs from it in the past.  It has one weakness though; it has an open eye and will sour if rained on. 

The Hardy Chicago gets a very low rating in my opinion.  It will bear after being frozen back, but here the fruit is so tasteless as to be close to worthless to me. 

I've had the Plattner Violetta for several years.  It has borne large fruit of excellent quality in the past.

To the lady with the snake:  I've had large bull snakes here.  They will eat eggs, small chickens and guineas, doves, pigeons--as well as mice and rats and other snakes.  If they would guarantee one gopher for every half-dozen eggs they eat I'd establish a cafeteria for them.  
Ox