Hey Danny. Welcome to Georgia.

Shot

Hi Danny and welcome to Ga.! I have several peonies and they are doing quite well and even have buds on them now. I have no idea what variety they are since they were here when we moved in. So I know there are at least some peonies that will thrive here. There are others that frequent this forum who are much more knowledgeable than I am, but our full summer sun can be brutal here, so I'm thinking maybe a little light afternoon shade might be appreciated by the peonies.
Vicki

Welcome Danny! I'm sorry but I don't know anything about figs or peonies!

Hey shot, good to see you're up and about!

Welcome to Georgia Danny!!! I'm sure you will get an answer to your peony and fig question. Happy gardening.

Best place I can think to call and ask about the figs is Johnson Nursery. They're up in Ellijay, close to Athens. They sell fruit trees galore (I've bought a few from them at this point), they are very knowledgeable and helpful. Quick trip to Google will give you a link to their website and phone number.

Hi ESH!!! Been wondering how you and the family were doing. Am on oxygen now so kinda restricted on movement. Did manage to get the garden planted thanks to #1 son (the computer geek that lives in Smyrna). All kinds of volunteers and some with much experience, but I had told him I would let him do it. Gave him a crash course about the tractor and he learned to harrow and plant quick enough. I didn't ever go out there...... just stayed in the living room.... the last thing I needed was a heart attack. lol

The garden really washed with all that rain, but I will rebuild and hope for the best.

Take care and nice to hear from you.

My appogies to the others on this thread.

Shot

Welcome Danny! You'll love the Athens area. I grew up there, and my folks are still in the area. Great place. Check out Thyme After Thyme Nursery in Winterville. There are some other nurseries in the area that are good ones.

A good book to get you started on gardening in the south is: The Southern Living Garden Book.

Good luck with your peonies and figs.

Also, good to hear from you, Shot!

Hi Danny, I can't help you with figs or peonies, but welcome to Georgia. As a fellow NE escapee, I know you are going to love it. NO MORE SNOW. Ok, so we had snow flurries today, but that's very unusual. Global warming you know :)

Anyway, welcome to the GA forum too.

Hi Danny

I think all kinds of peonies and figs are suitable around here. Some fig trees have small fruits already. Most figs continually grow fruits as the season here is long.

I have planted a fig tree from a cuting that I got last year. It might grow fruits this year. Fig trees are fast growing and like it over here. I used to live in Connecticut some years back. There was an Italian fellow who had a fig tree. He used to bend it down in the fall and fill around it with lots o leaves and wrap it real good. He managed to keep it alive that way. A frien also had a potted fig tree and would take it inside in the winter. But here in Georgia winters are mild and fig trees can thrive well.

You will discover other shrubs and trees here that could not find them up north, like crepe myrtles. Hyrangias also do much better here as well. Up north you had snow ball hyrangias, grown like a tree but I have not seen them here.
Also not to be found here are lilacks. I guess they have to have real cold winters.

Hi Danny:

We've got a fig in our backyard growing in relatively heavy shade that's starting to grow fruit already. I'm not sure what kind it is since it was here when we got here.

also,Not that you asked, but one thing we sort of miss from NE gardening is the tulips. They're sort of annuals or so here, though we still grow them anyway.

Danny, last Mother's Day I bought my wife a Brown Turkey tree about 6 feet tall. It made it through the winter and is really looking good. My sister has a large Brown Turkey and my wife really enjoys just walking around it and eating the ripe fruit.

Good luck with your choice.

Shot

Welcome! I also moved to Georgia quite recently. I did a fair amount of research on fruit trees for home gardens, and decided that the best no-spray option for our space was the Celestial fig tree. I just ordered one from Willis Orchards, which is located in GA (link below). I haven't gotten it yet, so that's all I can report so far, but I will keep you posted!

willisorchards.com

I am a Georgia transplant myself and liked it here.
The winters are short and growing season is long, compared to New Englan. But there is one draw back: The natural soil here is not that good. It is mostly red clay. So if you want to start a garden patch or plant trees you have to do quite a lot of work to amend the soil. I did it mostly by adding lots of top soil, leaves, compost, manure, leaves and also some double digging and screening to get rid of the small stones. I also hunt alot of worms from here and there and let them loose in my garden. They mostly are suffering from malnutrition (LOL) but after being introduced to my garden they gain some weight.
In Connecticut the soil was excellent, dark black and worms were plenty and fat(grin)

Danny, if you are interested in figs, the UGA extension has some information about their culture in Georgia. I'm not really sure why, but it doesn't seem to be available on their website anymore. Here is the link for an archived version of the file

Here is a link that might be useful: UGA: Figs

Thanks for the advice! I'm going to try a few Peonies. I have figs started in the greenhouse already. It seems 3 of the 5 I have are not fully hardy in GA, but I enjoy practicing "zonal denial". I even have an Olive tree started to bring down! From the sound of it, we must have a Celeste fig in the yard. I'd have said Brown Turkey but the link above mentioned some purple tones in Celeste. They were yummy! I have 2 unknowns, Brown Turkey, LSU Purple and "Brooklyn White"; which isn't a listed cultivar name in any literature I've seen. One of the others is also a "white" selection according to the person who gave me the cuttings.

I don't know anything about figs or peonies either, but welcome! My husband has been after me, in fact, to find a place for a fig tree at our house, but I have no experience with them. However, after I tell him there's one called "LSU Purple," I'm guessing he's going to make a bigger issue of it. (He's from Louisiana!) :)

Hahah. I'm also from Louisiana (and an LSU grad). LSU has released a number of fig varieties. I've heard LSU Gold is also really good.

Welcome to Georgia Danny.

I have no personal experience with growing figs. My Father in Law (Conyers GA) had fig trees, and my Brother in Law in Stone Mountain GA had several. The only problems that I recall both of them having was with our ice storms which are relatively rare, hard freezes and birds. The main problem with growing figs was the cold weather. It's not unusual to have cold snaps in the single digits every few years in the Atlanta area. My Father in Law tented his trees during those cold snaps.

Danny,

I just read all the previous comments and looks like I'm the only one mentioning cold snaps. I'm a native Georgian. My comments were based on seeing extremely cold weather four or five times over a period of thirty years in Atlanta. Extreme cold when it happens will kill unprotected fig trees. (And lots of other stuff too. Like that pretty shrub called Red Tips which used to be all over the Atlanta area.)

Yeah, some of the ones I have started are probably best below the fall line but I'm going to try them anyway.