Desert King will not produce well in your area. If the buds are damaged by cold it will not bear its breba crop. And since it's a breba crop only, It is only recommended to be grown in containers in severe winters. That said there are people who grow it successfully in Ny and NJ, and Delaware outdoor, but for me it didn't do well outdoor.

Go with Hardy Chicago or Celeste for dark figs, for white figs LSU Gold, Brooklyn White seems to do excellent for me.
Bass

yes i have come to the conclusion that very few if any figs ca be grown in my area in ground . Please anyone correct me if you are growing figs in ground in zone . 5 i was interested Desert King or Violette de Bordeaux as cultivators i could over winter in my garage. Please anyone continue to chime in with opinions or experance with Desert King or Violette de Bordeaux or any cultivator you have grown in zone

I live in Toronto, Ontario (Canada) which I believe is supposed to be Zone 5. I've no experience with VDB, but I've got a Desert King that I planted in ground last year. It's just a 3' stick of right now, but it has about 7-8 brebas coming up already. So it can work in ground if you protect it properly.

The fruits that I got from it last year, when it was in a pot were very sweet and juicy.

For winter proctection, I planted it at an angle and pinned the branches to the ground in the winter. I then covered it with about 6-8" of dry leaves and a piece of plastic on top. I weighed down the plastic covering with a few bricks at the corners to prevent the wind from blowing it away. The secret here is to keep it as close to the ground as possible to have the ground regulate the temperature. If you want to keep it upright over the winter, you'll need a much thicker insolation.

Hope this helps.

ccc1 thanks for the info looking for ward to hearing how your breba crop turns out this year , if they ripen up ok and how much it eventually produces.

Here's a photo of how it's doing so far... ment to post this earlier, but didn't get around to it...

As you can see, it's just a stick, but it's got quite a few fruit already. The straw and leaves that you see all around was what was covering the figs during the winter. I just shoved them aside in the spring and used them as a mulch. I'm using the blue rope to train it to and angle for easy bending in the fall.

Desert King is an excellent choice here in British Columbia, Canada. It gives a bountiful harvest in late July/early Aug.
For VDB, its a good fig but not as productive as DK. Also its 2nd crop usually don't get to ripen on time as the heat units are down & they taste bland. Maybe you should consider Grantham's Royal. Its a breba crop variant like DK. I think DK is more hardy than GR. If you are getting DK, get it from a known source as I have come across DK variants that are not as productive, same with VDB.

I have them both in pots. I am in zone 7. Forget about putting either variety in the ground in your location. They both do well for me in pots. What I like about Desert King is that I get figs in early July, when all my other trees are not ripe. In my zone I feel DK is better because it tastes better since I think the VDB needs more heat units to taste its best. There are years I feel the VDB tastes better than the DK but they are few and far between. Same goes for Negronne and Petite Negri, which I think are very close variants of VDB.

Update:

The brebas are starting to swell up and are giving a little to the touch! Yay! I'm surprised that these photos turned out well considering that I snapped them with my cell phone.

Looking at the previous picture and the current tree, it's grown so much. There's about 4' of new growth so far this year.

The house is undergoing major reno and I'm not living there... I hurt quit a bit when I want over to find a few of the branches under a bunch of wood that was ripped out from the house. Thankfully, I only saw one breba that was crushed... =(