Craig, sorry I'm not certain of how the Cape Chestnut will perform in your micro-climate. Below I've typed out the description from the book "Ornamental Trees For Mediterranean Climates: The Trees of San Diego." (Don't worry, I type fast.) Calodendrum capense (kal-oh-DEN-drum kuh-PENCE) Cape Chestnut Rutaceae Southern and Eastern Africa Magnificent is the word for a mature Cape Chestnut in bloom, and it is certainly a tree that once planted will entertain generations to come. Unrelated to the true chestnuts, this African tree is famous in Kenya for a large specimen that forms part of the structure of the Tree Tops Hotel. In Southern California, the Cape Chestnut is a slow-growing evergreen or briefly deciduous tree to 25-40' tall and wide whose dense, gradually spreading crown deserves the space it needs to show off its handsome dark green floiage and showy flowers. Flowering usually occurs in late spring or early summer, when the whole tree is covered with candelabra-like basketball-sized flower clusters composed of many individual 3" rosy-lilac blooms. Although this tree seldom blooms when young, a mature specimen will often rebloom in the fall. Seed pods are produced on mature trees and when ripe split open to reveal shiny black seeds. The Cape Chestnut is somewhat frost-tender when young, but mature trees will withstand temperatures as low as 15�F. It prefers a deep soil in full sun, and will usually lose most of its leaves for a brief time following cold winter temperatures. Quail Botanical Gardens is indicated as a place where this specimen can be viewed.

Thank you, Fruitnut, for your response. I had suspected as much. Being a novice here in NY and by divine fig tree intervention, the tree has always thrived in this climate. But this past winter was too much for this tree. We had a yard worker who took it upon himself to severely prune the tree in late fall. The thought had not crossed my mind that the tree was damaged from the winter. I didn't want to shock the tree any further. So I just let it comeback. It didn't occur to me that it was frost bitten until too late. Then I noticed the sawdust and realized that some of the limbs may be dead. The type of bug is what scared me. Your tree gets the same damage from the winter? Do you wrap your fig tree now? Also is there a good book resource on pruning the fig tree? I did it myself for a few years and it thrived but as we discussed the winter was too severe. But even though, I read various things on fig tree pruning. I never really felt that it was pruned the way it should be. That's for taking the time to help out a novice. ;-)

Hi, Gina - thank you for the kind words. I now have it in a south facing window, that is mostly covered by a light filtering shade, 4 feet from a west facing window in a fairly bright room, and next to a humidifier. So it's sort of between a S and W window? I wondered if I did a full repot and root trim if I could possibly put it in a slightly smaller pot? I plan to use a mixture of 1:1:1 potting soil, perlite, and repti-bark, and possible put some empty bottles in the bottom as ballast. Yes, you'll be able to put it in a smaller pot after the root reduction, but do make sure you don't cut yourself short insofar as space for roots to run, given you'll be adding ballast. I also hoped to turn it into a standard or “mother/daughter”. It has 6 stems that all seem to be from the same plant and I wonder what the best way to convert it would be? A mother/daughter arrangement would look like the larger tree hovers protectively over the daughter tree. When you select the two trees, be sure the larger doesn't dirsctly overhang the smaller and shade it out. The two should be offset a bit. This can usually be accomplished best by allowing the two trunk lines to be directly above each other for a distance before the daughter's trunk turns toward you. This arrangement has a front and a back for viewing purposes, but it should be rotated regularly so all sides get their share of light. Remove the surplus stems.branches unnecessary to the composition by pruning them back to the trunk. Start them as cuttings if you like. I read about removing stems to accomplish this but also about leaving stems, because those leaves have value to the plant, while you focus on strengthening one stem or binding a few together? Honestly, I just read so much information at once in the past couple days that I am a little overwhelmed :) Not pertinent at this point - save that for later. I would like to give it the correct soil and conditions for it to thrive. I think you can expect good results with what you proposed above, and the ballast will definitely work in your favor. Is it too late for a repot and root pruning in zone 7b? If there was no pressure to get the plant out of the pot/soil it's in now, I'd probably wait. If you think the combination has potential to dump a serious problem before next spring, go ahead and repot. It would be best if, after the repot, the plant could be sited outdoors in dappled or open shade and out of wind while it recovers. You have a longer growing season than I do and I set Aug 1 as my last repot date for Ficus ..... but all my trees are outdoors, which makes a very significant difference. Start fertilizing when you're seeing new growth. Make sure you keep the roots WET for the entire duration of the repotting session. Have everything ready to go before you start. Add a wick to the pot too, if you like. Questions? Al

Thank you so much for your input. Our fig tree was split in half to the ground by a fallen oak branch years ago and has come back from the roots to be a multi trunk bush/tree. We prune it back quite a bit every year to keep it from getting too big for its spot. We get a lot of new growth every year. These tiny buds and small figs have appeared on almost all of the branches. They look like Bebas to me because when this tree has had brebas in the past they were a different shape than the ones we get in the late summer/fall. When they mature they have been sort of bronzy, hard, and not good figs. They also have looked like brebas in pictures. However, I am getting nervous about snapping all of them off the tree even though it is still June. Never before have we had so many. With climate change few things are behaving as usual. The figs we get in the fall are divine - dark skin and red strawberry flavored flesh. It would be a shame to miss out on the true figs. It seems to be hard to get much specific info about all this. Do you think the fall crop could actually be forming as early as this? They are at the junction of the leaf. I would include a picture if I knew how.