Dan: About 9 years ago, I contacted a good friend and fig collector by the name of R. Watts and asked him what his best tasting dark fig was. He told me that Black Madeira was probably the best out of all his dark figs but that he preferred Italian-258 as a close second because it sometimes produced two crops and consistently bore alot of figs for him to eat. So he was kind enough to share a rooted Italian-258 with me. Personally, BM reminds me of the chewing gum that has a syrupy filling. Once you bite into it, there is this burst of an intense, sweet berry flavor that just lingers on. Italian-258 has a similar intense flavor but with a persistent aftertaste that, to me, tastes more like a fig and not so much like a berry! I personally like figs that taste like figs, not other fruit, as others might prefer.

I ordered a cutting from Encanto Farms late January of this year. If memory serves it was $ 6.00 for a single cutting which is the highest price on the list. Purchases were limited to one cutting of this variety. I purchased..... B-0-06 Paradiso Z-1-07 Marseilles VS C-5-08 LSU Purple A-0-12 Atreano E-1011 Col de Dame B-1013 Conadria C-FU Black Madeira All the cuttings I received looked healthy and viable and shipping was prompt. Kudos to Jon. Can't wait to see whats available next.

Martin, nice looking plants. I like the dark figs too.

TMC, I have a new lower branch growing from the bottom almost like yours, it's about 1" off the ground. If I want to make a separate plant from that branch, should I just add soil over it like you or should I wound the branch and maybe add some rooting hormone? The branch is new green wood. I haven't had any success with woody fig cuttings I bought this spring. Nothing came of it.... and I was excited because I had 3 cuttings of celeste and 3 cuttings of black Nigrone I believe.