The fig tree loved Rome, producing some thirty sweet figs the second year. Thankfully, a good friend agreed to help it stay. And better than this, she freed it from the confines of potted life. Now it is happily planted in the countryside outside of Rome.

And, still in the care of a watchful animal. Here’s to many more harvests!

It’s been growing quickly on our sunny balcony, and already put out two early figs! Here’s a picture from a couple days ago.

And here’s a picture where you can see the whole tree.

In our apartment in Paris the tree wanted to grow horizontally to reach its meager light from the window. Here, it is going more directly up. I think it’ll be taller than me soon!

And here it is, cut in half before consumption:

Late this spring, after making a lot of branch growth, our tree put out three little green flowers. For a few months these made no progress, until a couple weeks ago, when one of the proto-figs begin to grow and soften. Finally, last week it fell off! It hadn’t grown fully purple yet, but it was very soft, and it was also very tasty. Perhaps two more are on the way! Stay tuned…

It’s been a while since we posted, but this adorable fig tree was too nice not to share. This stubborn tree is growing out of the wall of the Palace of the Kings of Majorca in Perpignan, where we took our summer vacation this year. Of course that part of southern France was full of figs, but none so unexpected as him. One day, he and his comrades will tear down this wall.

They were pruned into a perfect canopy, and young figs were beginning to grow. A lovely facet of a lovely place!

I was excited to spot this tree on the edge of the botanical school gardens:

A funny broad fig tree, happy in the brilliant sunlight! He had a nametag too:

The Rouge de Bordeaux, I imagine, refers to its fruit. Perhaps we’ll see some soon and can judge for ourselves.

In that courtyard was also a handsome fig tree! See it pictured below.

This tree was growing out of a gutter in the courtyard, right through a bench. Here is a detail of its base, in the gutter.

A friend of mine said that figs will grow anywhere that their roots are strong. Here is some evidence!

On the trip, we also saw a big beautiful tree on a south-facing hillside along the Loire basin, already heavy with figs. I didn’t snap a picture of it though.

The first branch has grown quickly and now has a big collection of leaves, and is even growing a second branch from the same branching point on the original trunk.

A few more points on the trunk have started forming new branches, with a couple at the top already unfolding tiny leaves. These are pictured below.

Some nearly imperceptible green bits have also been forming on the trunk below the first branch. I’m not yet sure whether these will be new branches or just single leaves.

Meet the Côteaux Nantais confiture figues extra. I bought a jar for my wife’s Christmas stocking, but I must admit to having eaten most of it myself.

This jam is superb. It’s super figgy and not too sweet, with big chunks of fig spread throughout. It’s like someone took a potato masher to a bunch of very ripe figs.

The jar says that it is 65% fig by weight, and that the only other ingredients are “red sugar” and citrus juice. The simple composition really lets the fig flavor shine through.

Today we enjoyed some with a mild brie on pieces of brioche Nanterre, which is a great combination. I’ve also enjoyed it on hamburgers.

This blog takes no money from advertising or corporate sponsors, but if you’re a marketing person at Côteaux Nantais and you’re reading this, I will gladly take your money in exchange for some native advertising. Please get in touch.

I first spotted this tree on my walk to work in December, when I noticed the distinctive leaf shape of a fig and snapped a picture to send my wife. Here he was in December:

You can see that he is a skinny tree growing from a very large base—there was once a much larger tree here.

Since then, I have kept an eye on him on my commutes. Sometime during the winter, the owner of this tree snipped off the top! This was likely to encourage the tree to branch out at that point, rather than continue to grow straight up.

Today I snapped some pictures of this tree on my way to work. Here is a detail of how his top is doing:

Look at all those little branches! His owners succeeded in encouraging branching by pruning the tree this winter. Here’s a look at the bottom:

Look at all those little fig trees! Behind the big stump there are even a couple little trees poking out of the dirt several centimeters away from the base.

It looks like there has already been some pruning down here; perhaps the owners of this fig will continue to prune these shoots down to encourage more resources to the top. Stay tuned to find out!

We got this fig in the early summer of 2019, as a roughly half-meter tall twig from the Ithaca Farmers’ Market. For the first couple months of its life with us it lived outside next to the porch in its original disposable pot. By the time I bought a large ceramic pot for it for my wife’s birthday in late August, it had grown well over a meter taller, and also well into the ground underneath its pot! Transplanting it was a bit traumatic, as deep roots had to be cut to free it from the ground. I can’t find any pictures of it from this phase of its life.

That winter we did not understand the principle of overwintering figs, and mistakenly tried to keep its leaves on as the days became shorter and colder. Here is a picture of the tree from November of 2019, with some baby spiders climbing all over it:

Our misguided attempts to keep the tree awake that winter made him quite confused, and in January he started growing a fig!

Of course, with the short winter days and cold temperatures, the fig never ripened and I had to throw it out.

The tree bounced back from this experience and started growing voraciously this summer. The only picture I have of it is from June, early in its growth spurt:

In August we had to abandon him to move across and then out of the country, and left him in the care of my father-in-law. This time, with strict instructions on how to appropriately overwinter the poor thing! He reportedly lost his leaves and slept in a healthy way, though by February he became impatient. On Valentines day we received this picture:

By mid-March, things had progressed further:

Despite an early start, he looks to be in good hands! With any luck, he might yield his first edible figs this summer, though we probably will not be around to enjoy them.

I bought this plant at a local garden store last Saturday the 27th. At the time, he was only a long stick poking out of a disposable planter, which was fortunate because I had to pack him into a saddle bag and bike him home.

Planting the root ball was easy, especially since we already had a pot full of well-draining soil prepared (leftover from a kumquat tree that didn’t survive a midwinter repotting). For the first few days he pushed quite a bit out water out of the cut at his top, but in the last few days it has started to heal up and no water has come out.

As you can see, eight days in and he is mostly still a stick, though he had a recent burst of growth about a nub in his middle. Here’s a detail of that growth:

In the last couple days several other bright green nubs have formed at other old leaf sites, so I think we are in store for a handful of branches (or at least new leaves) in the coming weeks!

FanFigtion is run by Jaron Kent-Dobias, a fig fanatic and owner of two potted fig trees (though current caretaker of just one).

Other fig fans are welcome to submit original fig content to us via email at webmaster@fanfigtion.net. Quality submissions may be posted, with attribution.