On my last trip to Sicily (October 1996), I ate as many figs as I wanted as all my relatives had gardens with various fig trees and at each visit I would greet my hosts and drift away into the garden, only to return with a tummy full of figs. This was great HOWEVER, know that fresh figs are a natural laxative ...nuff said about that. In South Florida we get the occasional fig that the birds miss, the actual fig pigout happens when Publix supermarkets bring in the fresh figs from california, usually they'll have calimyrna, BT, black mission, kadota. I get enough for a couple of serious 'stuff your face full of figs' sessions and that will last for a while. Then as Christmas nears, my family will make cookies with dried figs and chocolate. I occasionally take a roll of dried figs with me to work and pick on from time to time... How many figs is enough? I could probably survive on fresh figs and dates and water...

Nice list, Bear. Always good to hear other growers' experiences, especially those who are in less than ideal climates. I'm in my first year growing figs, so my collection is small. I've tried to concentrate on varieties that will produce well in containers here in my zone 5 Maine location. Maybe in a couple years I'll try a few in-ground. MBVS- Started these this year from cuttings, now 3' tall. Brown Turkey- Probably graft these over to something earlier. LSU Purple- too good a price to pass up at the Whole Foods. Celeste-small 1st year plant Salem Dark- same Now starting some cuttings to have a bit of greenery indoors through our long winter months. Desert King, Hardy Chicago, Petite Negri, Genovese Nero, Nero 600, Magnolia, LSU gold, Galbun, Celeste. No figs yet, but I got the bug! I'm open to recommendations for 'must haves' suitable for my location.

I get the blues when the days are short, and it's too cold to be in the garden. I don't let myself get too excited about gardening, but this year, I'm gardening by going through my pics from different times of the past season, looking for pics of specific flowers for my blog. Usually, I have dreams about gardening a couple times a month, but have only had one so far. Maybe it's because of the blogging. We have melting snow today, as it's currently a warm 50 degrees. I am always excited when the days start getting longer instead of shorter. I feel that I can survive the winter, and hope for the soil to be dry enough the end of February to plant my first lettuce, spinach, radishes, and kale. I figure that I want to get out while I can, and if it rains or snows later, it's OK, because those seeds are in there, ready to grow when the conditions are right. I have had seedlings get snowed on, and still survive. Besides, I am already planting more when I see they are up. I have a plan to put a tomato plant or two in my new flower bed, and try to keep the leaves from touching the dirt, because mine always get diseased and die, and I don't have room in the veggie garden to rotate them well. I have some holes to fill in different beds, including the area by our repaired shed. I plan to put in some not too tall growing goldenrods, coneflowers, asters, and some kind of summer blooming annuals. Sue

ingrid_vc -- I, too, noticed that 'Honorine de Brabant' seems focused more on growing than blooming if left to itself. Last year, I pruned it in late Winter, and it was glorious for its first flush in late Spring. Then it grew and grew, since I let it "go wild", and I got only the occasional bloom here and there, the last sometime around Halloween. This year, I'm trying an experiment of sorts -- the roses which are "stingy" with rebloom were just lightly tidied up in Spring, but otherwise left rather big. After the first flush, I'm going to prune them as "the books" say to do in late Winter, and see if that gets a better rebloom. It worked with 'Rose du Roi -- original' which I cut back hard on half its canes after the first flush because it wasn't self-supporting. The result was a bit scary for a couple of weeks, since that one leafs out only in the top few inches, which made it top-heavy and caused it to flop. After cutting it back hard, I was left with leafless canes maxing at about 24" tall. But they soon branched lower down and leafed out again, and had a second flush soon after. Once I saw that what I did didn't kill the canes on which I did it, I went back and did it to the others I left untouched. They did the same thing, but behind the first set by a few weeks. What I'm going to do with 'Honorine de Brabant' is first look to see if there are canes or laterals which had few or no blooms, and remove them entirely -- I figure they're "spent". Then I'll cut back canes which did bloom well by about a third. I've noticed that reblooming OGRs like Bourbons and Hybrid Perpetuals don't "rebloom" the way Chinas and Teas and Polyanthas do. The former groups bloom after new growth has reached a certain size, their first flush being on what grew the previous year. The latter groups just leaf out what remained after Winter, then send out bloom sprays on that, which later become new growth. In other words, my Bourbons and Hybrid Perpetuals want to leaf out, grow, then bloom. My Chinas, Teas, and Polyanthas want to leaf out, bloom, then grow. So I'm thinking that to get the Bourbons and Hybrid Perpetuals to rebloom better, they need a kick in the pants to send forth new growth, rather than just extending what they already put out before the first flush. haku84 -- 'Mme de Sevigne' does not disappoint in the fragrance department. Everyone talks about 'Mme Isaac Pereire' as being the most fragrant Bourbon, but I've smelled quite a few, and I think that generally this "family" of long-caned Bourbons with kinda similar blooms are mostly very fragrant. This would include 'Mme de Sevigne', as well as the rose sold as 'Souvenir du President Lincoln', 'Deuil de Dr. Reynaud', 'Mme d'Enfert', etc. If you have an old Vintage Gardens catalog, they'd be the Bourbons of growth habit #3, or in some cases #4 -- as is my 'Souvenir de Victor Landeau', which is also quite fragrant. :-) ~Christopher