Most folks do very little winter protection down here but the last two winters have been colder than normal. My trees froze back to the ground this year so I will be pruning them smaller and protecting them from now on.

Thank you John. I will be protecting too. My Violette de Bourdeaux has some shoots popping out of the ground, but no signs of life yet from my Celeste or Lattarula. I am optimistic, though, that they will come back. At least I hope so.

My experience ( Raleigh NC)

I have a" Celeste" fig...

This plant was completely gone during the Hurricane Fran and the aftermath. It did not survive the winter (and I thought that was mild).

However,..... It came back from the ground and flourished with such vigor every year and was so tall ( almost reached the second level of my home).

Well now we had to move it ( construction) . And so it is smaller and still alive and sprouting in a Pot. I will be planting it in the ground soon.

My pomegranates, both, died along with the bay laurel :-(( Never came back...

I have a Celeste that is probably 20 years old that did not show any signs of winter damage. My neighbor's young Celeste tree across the street from me has been killed to the ground each of the past two winters but is again coming back. I have a Kadota which is about 5 years old that came through last winter okay but is slow to leaf out this year. Mature fig trees do seem to handle cold weather better. My Chicago Hardy variety is only about 6 years old and has never shown any signs of cold damage. It has a large number of breba figs on it now and it will continue to bear until our first killing frost. Unlike Kadota, Celeste and Brown Turkey which have a heavy crop and are finished, Chicago Hardy's figs are spread out over a long season so that I typically end up eating 4 or 5 a day out of hand all summer and early fall. I think that a really ripe Kadota may be the best tasting fig of all, but Chicago hardy is up there with Celeste in a close second in taste.

Thanks Ralph,

I do need to learn more on figs and their attitudes to cold tolerance...

Yes I think plants have attitude.

I wanna see how many folks here agree on that.. ha ha :-)

Ralph, my Celeste also had minimal die back this winter and it's got a lot of breba figs on it now -- will it just drop those before starting to produce the main crop later?