Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Same Day, Different Leaves

Check this out. Here is a picture taken last weekend of my Celeste fig. All leaves dropped, looking dormant and ready for winter.

Celeste fig. I'm trying to keep it pruned as a multi-stem shrub.
And here's a pic of my Violette de Bordeaux (VdB) fig taken on the same day. Keep in mind that this fig is planted only about 15 feet away from my Celeste fig with the same general southerly exposure.

Violette de Bordeaux fig fully leafed out in December.
This VdB fig has all of its leaves with only minor brown/dry damage from a recent frost, and it is also still loaded with figs. The difference between this tree and the Celeste is really quite amazing.

I guess variety is the spice of life, even in the world of figs!

6 comments:

Veggie PAK said...

Your Celeste fig looks like my brown turkey fig does now. No leaves and no figs. The figs it had just fell off without ripening. Mother Nature likes to keep us guessing on what she'll do next.

Erin said...

One more reason to plant VdB next spring!!!
Erin

Anonymous said...

dave, the 2 "cousin" figs you gave us to plant on our mountain farm (from your stock) both lost their last leaves 6-8 weeks ago, altho the VdB lasted longer. Faats

.09 Acres said...

Faats, we'll have to wait and see how they hold up in that howling wind coming down the mountains in Afton. That might be a problem when it's VERY cold. Hopefully they pull through their first winter without a problem. They tend to get more cold-hardy as they get bigger.

KL said...

Do these two figs survive the snow? I recently got a Chicago hardy fig.

.09 Acres said...

KL, these varieties did survive 13" of snow last winter, but the snow was only on the ground for about 3 days. It's generally not very snowy here. The biggest concern with figs in cold weather is sub-freezing temperatures (generally 20F or below) for long periods of time. Cold temps and high winds or windy exposure are a killer combo. Hardy Chicago is a fairly hardy variety.