From Virginia: 2021 "Proven Varieties"

 A reliable fig from the LSU fig breeding program. A great honey flavor--early and reliable. 

The go-to San Pedro fig. Great for short seasons with mild climates like the Pacific Northwest.

This is a benchmark variety for early figs. When Improved Celeste ripens, it means your fig season has started. A great sugar fig; good in humidity; a proven winner for sure!

This is widely regarded as one of the best tasting figs, and probably the best all-around fig for the east coast. If you can only have one fig in your collection, this is probably the one to get.

Malta Black is one of my earliest varieties and it produces a lot of great berry flavored fruit. The taste is a simple berry flavor with nice sweetness. A great reliable producer on the east coast and for short seasons! 

Black Bethlehem is a good Hardy Chicago-type fig. It is a workhorse variety that produces a lot of good figs year after year.

RLBV is one of my earliest figs. It is a Hardy Chicago-type berry fig that tastes and performs better than the standard Hardy Chicago. Good resistance to rain. Great fig!

A Violet de Bordeaux (VdB) type fig that I prefer to the actual VdB fig. This fig has a really tight eye and does well in humid weather with lots of bugs. Great taste! 

This is a variety that is a strong grower and produces a lot of fruit every year. Despite the fruit size it seems to do well in the East Coast weather.

This is a beautiful powdery blue-purple fig with a great flavor. It has a very tight eye and is one of my best performers in terms of humidity and bug resistance.

This is fig that can have a unique creamy banana-like flavor when fully ripe. Very tasty!

LSU Purple takes a few years to develop a good flavor, but once it does it is widely regarded as a great sugar fig with some nice additional flavors.

Moscatel Preto is a large early fig that has a great sweet caramel flavor and consistently produces good quality fruit on the east coast.

This fig has so many great qualities! Its very early, it has a super sweet berry flavor, and it will tend to dry rather than spoil on the tree.

A striped variety with a good berry flavor.

Green Michurinska is an adriatic-type fig that seems to ripen about 1-2 weeks earlier than my other adriatic-types. It has a sweet berry flavor.

This variety is widely regarded as one of the best berry fig varieties out there. Many people say it is similar to Violet Sepor and Socorro Black.

Pastiliere is a variety that is highly regarded by many growers for its unique taste. When well ripened this variety has a super juicy, sweet flavor.

A top performing fig! Great flavor, easily ripened, and good performance in humidity and bugs. One of the best varieties!

Another variety that is well known and produces great quality berry figs. Similar or the same as Bourjassotte Grise and Violet Sepor.

This is a tiny fig, probably the smallest of all my fig varieties. It has a sweet flavor with a slightly bitter skin. The eye is very tight.

This is a Hardy Chicago-type fig that produces good quality figs each year. It is one of five varieties that I have in the ground.

This is the third of three excellent varieties that are very similar to each other: Violet Sepor, Bourjassotte Grise, and Socorro Black.

Blanche de Deux Saisons is an adriatic-type fig. Its a good fig that's been around for a while but is not as commonly grown as some of the other adriatics

Champagne is a very good honey fig. It has performed well for me several years in a row.

Negra d'Agde has a strong berry flavor. It ripened some really tasty figs for me last year, and I'm looking forward to more from this variety again this year.

Petite Negri has a good Violet de Bordeaux-like flavor with less of the splitting issues that have occurred for me with Violet de Bordeaux. 

This is a Hardy Chicago-type variety, and is one of five varieties that I have in the ground. Every east coast grower should have at least one Hardy Chicago-type.

Dalmatie is a large green berry fig with superb flavor. Its surprising to me that this fig doesn't get more attention.

Probably not actually a proven winner in my book , but for lack of a better place to put this one... Sucrette

This is a Spanish fig that a lot of growers have said good things about. It has a nice berry flavor.

This is a Black Madeira type fig that can have a really good complex berry flavor. 

I-258 has a good taste if you can get it to ripen properly. 

A surprising amount of flavor from this fig despite the fact that it was slightly under ripe. A promising variety!

This is a variety with a very sweet berry flavor. Its very tasty, but it ripens late so it is not a good choice for growers with short seasons.

This is a yellow skinned fig with a berry interior that holds up well to east coast growing conditions. It has a very tight eye.

 Sao Miguel Roxo is a good tasting variety that is a vigorous grower and produces a lot of figs. It also goes by the name Azores Dark.

Yellow Greek is a honey fig that seems to taste pretty good year after year. 

Ischia Black can have a Black Madeira-like flavor. It can be a challenge to fully ripen these figs in my climate but they still taste good slightly underripe.

Bourjassotte Noire is a well known French variety that produces good quality berry figs with a great taste. A great addition for a serious fig grower.

Galicia Negra is a good berry fig that is well known for having a very dark pulp when well ripened.

This is a nice tasting berry fig variety from France.

Although this fig is in the "proven winners" section, it can have splitting issues. Otherwise, it is a good berry fig.

This is a green skinned fig with a sweet strawberry flavor.

A beautiful fig with green and yellow stripes that turns to purple when ripe. A sweet berry flavor.

A great tasting fig with a strong berry favor. Ripens late in the season.

I thought this was my best tasting fig in 2019 and 2020. It is a late ripening variety but it can taste really good.

This is a Black Madeira type variety that many regard as one of the finest tasting varieties. This variety can be difficult to ripen in my climate.

Gentile has a good taste, but for me personally, it hasn't been my best performing Adriatic-type.

De la Roca is a variety from the collection of Montserrat Pons. It has a good taste but has always ripened late in the season for me.

Col de Dame Grise is known as being one of the best tasting figs. It has a rich berry flavor, a jammy texture, and a deep red colored pulp.

BNR is a variety that is widely recognized as a top tier variety. It has beautiful striping and a great sweet berry flavor. 

Craven's Craving is a Black Madeira-type variety. It has the same great taste and growing condition limitations as the other high quality Black Madeira type varieties. 

CLBC is a Black Madeira type variety. It should have many of the same advantages and disadvantages as the other BM types.

I ripened my Col de Dame Noir figs under grow lights and they were some of my best tasting figs of the season.

Ponte Tresa is a good quality fig that can have a nice berry flavor.

This variety has the great Col de Dame taste with the additional benefit of having beautiful purple striping. 

This is another great Col de Dame variety. This one has a green skin with the rich berry flavor that the CDD figs are known for. 

A fig from the collection of Dato Syed--it is juicy with a sweet flavor.

This is a sweet sugar fig that has great quality. It seems to be quite early. Multiple growers have reported positive results from this variety

This is an unusual fig that shrivels as it ripens after initially swelling. It has a sweet flavor with hints of melon.

Faja de Ovelha is a very small fig with a sweet berry flavor and a tight eye. It looks like it might do well on the east coast.

This is a small fig with an unusual elongated shape. It has a lot of qualities that should make it a good choice for many growers. 

Capaniere is an early fig that has a sweet juicy, and delicious flavor. The flavor is not berry, and might be described as tropical-like.

Eaubonne is another FDM variety that is fairly early, small, and has a good sweet flavor.

Rossellino is a small fig that packs a big flavor! It has a strong sweet berry taste and a tight eye.

This is a large to XL berry fig. Despite it's large size, it actually tasted pretty good, ripening all the way through with only a little spoilage near the eye despite a lot of rain.

Beltrana is a medium/large berry fig that has a very interesting tangy caramel aftertaste. A very nice flavor!

This variety had a strong sweet berry flavor that tasted delicious considering the huge amount of rain this week. This is a very promising variety for rainy climates.

A new variety that I am trying for the first time this year. It has a tight eye and a nice sweet figgy flavor. A nice change of pace from the standard berry fig.

This appears to be a Violet de Bordeaux-type fig. It has good growth, good taste, but did split a little bit in the rain. 

This variety is supposed to be very similar, or possibly the same, as LSU Tiger.

A small green fig with a berry interior that seems to do well in east coast growing conditions.

This is a Pons variety originally from Spain. It has a super sweet taste with light berry. I'd compare it to LSU Tiger. Outstanding taste!

This is a new FDM variety with a syrupy sweet caramel flavor. I compare it to Moscatel Preto, but with a more chewy skin and more of an average size. Very nice!

La Costa Jewell Unk is a new variety from California. It was not even clear that this would be a common variety, but it is not only common but also has a good taste!

This is a new variety for me, but a lot of growers have grown this variety previously. It has a nice berry flavor.

This is a variety that not a lot of people are growing. It was introduced a couple of years ago and can have a refreshing fruity flavor.

The One is a great tasting variety and shows a lot of promise

This variety has a good flavor and can get a rosy color to the skin when it is fully ripe.

The name of this variety translates to "That's good" in French. I think it lives up to the name.

This seems to have a taste similar to VdB although it doesn't appear to be a classic VdB-type. It may have splitting issues in the rain. 

This is a new variety that comes from California. It is reported to have an intense berry flavor when caprified, but for me it was just a sugar flavor.

This is a Figues du Monde variety with a really nice flavor. 

Piccola Negretta has a really nice VdB-like flavor. This is a new variety for me this year, but I've been impressed so far by the ease with which this tree produces good quality, ripe figs.

A large fig and a very productive variety. The flavor has been mediocre so far. It may improve over time.

This is a variety with a very different flavor. 

A lot of growers have given this variety their approval, and I am now one of them. This variety has good strong berry flavor.

This is an FDM variety with an unusual creamy flavor. It had a light sweetness for me and flavors may develop with time.

This is a new find from California. My first fig had a simple sugar flavor.

This had a good, very sweet berry flavor. It was very good, but more of a standard berry flavor than a raspberry flavor

This is a good tasting, large, green berry fig, similar to Stella/Dalmatie.

Another large, green berry fig; a member of the Stella/Dalmatie class of figs

Another large, green berry fig; a member of the Stella/Dalmatie class of figs

This is a variety from Mario's collection. It has a honey fig flavor, but the skin had a slightly rough texture.

This is a Dalmatie-type fig  that originates in Uzbekistan. 

The "Dead Cat" 2 variety comes from the LSU fig program. It appears to have a caramel flavor with a little bit of figginess. 

Jebba has been a disappointment. I haven't gotten the berry flavor that I was expecting.

True to its name, this has a nice honey plum-like flavor. A good tasting variety.

This is a large red fig with a berry interior. The tree seems productive. 

This is an heirloom variety from Lebanon that appears to be a small fig with a Hardy Chicago-like flavor.

This is reported to have a very good taste when caprified. My first fig in VA had a nice sweet berry flavor.

Pons reports that this is a sub-variety of Paratjal. It has a sweet berry flavor.

This variety has a nice berry flavor and a nice red color as it ripens.

This is a FDM variety that had a good berry flavor despite being slightly underripe.

This is a new variety that was discovered as a seedling in California. It had a sugar taste.

Piombinese and Citrullara are reported to be synonyms. They have a berry flavor and just barely finished ripening before the season ended during their first year. 

Piombinese and Citrullara are reported to be synonyms. They have a berry flavor and just barely finished ripening before the season ended during their first year. 

Ponta do Pargo is a fig variety from the island of Madeira. It has a unique stem but also had a very large eye. 

Baldufada Rimada may be synonymous with some other striped varieties, but it appears to ripen a little earlier.  In any case, it has beautiful striping and a great sweet berry flavor.

TD Yellow Crinkle is a yellowish fig with a good berry flavor. It is notable for having wrinkled/crinkled skin when fully ripe.

Burgisa is a sugar fig that has potential but only gave me one ripe fig during its first growing year.

This variety is reported to have a great flavor in California, but I had trouble ripening good tasting figs during its first year in Northern Virginia.

This is a Black Madeira type fig that has a good taste but can be challenging to ripen well in Northern Virginia.

KTJ is a variety that has a nice sweet flavor. It originates in Albania but was popularized by Fig Agro Lab in Malaysia. It may possibly be the same as the variety called Flanders.

Joualle Noire is a variety that a lot of growers are excited about because of its good berry flavor. This tree put on a lot of growth during its first year but only a few figs. The figs I did get had a good berry flavor. 

This is a variety that appeared to have some green striping when grown in California, but ripened as more of a brown color in Northern Virginia. It had a good berry flavor.

Nostrano had a good honey fig flavor. It comes from the Nikky collection of figs.

This variety is reported to have a very good taste in California, but unfortunately for me, my one fig didn't have a great flavor this season. I think caprification is a factor, but there could be other reasons.  

 Black Tuscan is another Black Madeira type fig variety. It had a lot of typical Black Madeira characteristics and I finished ripening this fig in my grow room.  

 This is a Portuguese variety that has a nice sweet flavor. I had some trouble getting a fig to ripen without splitting or pest issues. 

This is a California seedling discovered by Doug (Blue Malibu). It has a sweet berry flavor and ripens later in the season. It can have some splitting issues in the rain.

This is a Montserrat Pons variety. It is a very sweet berry fig with a sweet chewy skin that ripens mid season. It produced good quality fruit in suboptimal conditions.

Cessac is a FDM variety that has a great berry flavor and a lot of syrup. It is approximately mid season. 

This is a variety that is reported to have a really good taste in California. My fig tasted good in Virginia, but it seems to ripen late in the season.

This is an MP variety that is similar to Calderona. It was a fairly large fig but held up well in the weather and had a really nice berry taste.

This is a fig that was found growing near the Bay Area in California.  It is a fairly large berry flavored fig that appears to ripen fairly early. It is known to have a dark interior when fully ripe.

This fig has a beautiful olive skin, with a bright red berry interior. The taste is like a berry candy, it has a tight eye and is early/mid season.