Cold Hardy Figs: Brown Turkey (Texas Everbearing) DWN Blue Celeste (all Celeste really) DWN Brunswick Hardy Chicago DWN Violet De Bordeaux (Negronne) medium eye, down to zone 5 DWN Desert King DWN Italian Honey (Lattarula) Peter's Honey Osborne Prolific (Neverella) DWN Excel DWN Texas Blue Giant DWN Golden Celeste Black Mission DWN [there are others but they require either hot summers or a summer greenhouse to sweeten] Alma - late ripening, honey fig, ugly fig, super flavor [female Allison X male Hamma Caprifig] Atreano Bayenfeige Violetta Biancheta Brogiotto Nero (Briogiotto Fiorentino) Capelas Dauphine Genovese Nero Hollier Isfahan LSU Purple Mademoiselle de deux Saisons Malta (Sugar Fig) Northland (Nordland Bergfeige) Paradiso Bianco Portuguese East Mountain Ronde de Bordeaux Sal's (Corleone) Skardu Dark Stela (honey fig) (aka Stella) Sultane Tena (Bifere) Ventura As to which do well in zone 5 ... do your homework.

Ed, i dont know how that process works but i have brought in fig plant before and it lost its leaves but i dont think it goes Fully dormant like in my garage but like a semi dormant where it does not grow or anything which i dont think is a proper rest, along with that each year i bring in my potted oleander and jasmine plants from outdoors into home and they always lose there leaves and do the same that the fig tree i once brought in then. In spring i do the same as with fig trees ( bring in and out )and they wake up. Personally i think a Prolonged cold spell could spell death for the one on balcony but afer seeing my garage temps last year for a good while (several weeks) in the teens with no sunlight to speak of as they were covered with bed sheets i think if properly stored on balcony it would be ok because we do get days in winter that do fluctuate enough as opposed to a place that stays cold period like say a MI upper pennisula in winter. Gong back to what i said Prolonged cold spell could spell death for the one on balcony, from reading the forums about folks northeast like in New York who have seen trees around neighborhood that are good size and therfore cannot be winter covered i can bet every so many years that plant does get harmed but because of its root system will grow back pretty fast and may not produce like the year before but will produce somewhat and be back to size the year after. Then it may take another 10 years for that 1 real cold winter to do that cycle all over again. Like Tapla said once root freeze thats it for plant and im sure it can do that quicker in a pot than inground because of limited root size in pot than inground. So in short i think the plant will survive on balcony but a good enough cold winter which will happen here every so often will kill the plant one winter, last winter Might have been the one if that plant was out there even protected in its pot. Best Health Martin

Did it come that way with the mulch when you bought it? the way you described the roots, it was severely under watered. You mainly need to worry about over watering when the tree is inside and in a soil made up mostly of peat. Pebbles are not needed at the bottom and do not help with drainage. They actually keep the soil from draining as it would without them. A soil made up of 5 parts pine bark, 1 part peat and 1 part perlite would be a good choice. You should read these two links: your ficus lyrata has pretty much the same cultural needs as ficus benjamina. http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/1493078/ficus-trees-in-containers http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/2842847/container-soils-water-movement-and-retention-xxii?n=418

Final update: the fig held over in the garage is now outside permanently (will pull it back in if we get a late freeze), leafing out and has several breba figs already! I had unwrapped it March 31, but I didn't bring it outside, just gave it some water now and again, and left the garage door open for short periods a few times a week. I started bringing it out fully into sun about 10 days ago, and left it out permanently about 6 days ago. The younger smaller fig that was held in my basement started leafing out in February, so I brought it upstairs and gave it some water. It rapidly put on about a foot of growth with 4-5 leaves, then stalled. I figured that it wasn't getting enough light (even with the south facing window, as the sun gets higher less direct light gets in) so started with the inside-outside dance, the plan being putting it out in the shade for short periods at first, then lengthening its time outside, then giving it more exposure to sun gradually. It hasn't been happy; it lost a couple of the lower leaves and others were sunburned even in the shade! The new growth remains weak and spindly. It has pushed out another leaf on each stem, but those are developing much more slowly. The in-ground fig had some green buds when I unwrapped it, but by the time we got those two overnight freezes two weeks ago, those had turned brown and dried. Despite that, I did cover it for the freeze nights. I do still see a tiny bit of green color low down on a couple of young stems that had the buds but most of the stems look dead. I'm hoping that it will start to push out some new growth from those few. I'll be watching for a sale on DCarch's panels.