I have wrapped above ground pots with aluminum foil, shiny side out, fastened with duct tape. I have also painted above ground pots white. I mulched with coarse limesstone which is also white, or with perlite. Perlite is too flulffy and tends to blow away. Even with these methods, I had to water figs daily in the summer, and Texas summer is hotter than Washington state summer where I live. I atually checked with a thermometer, and the foil and white mulch does keep the soil at least 10 to 15 degrees cooler, but I don't think that's good enough in hot weather. The leaves also transpire more water in hot weather. I also tried a pot-in-pot method, putting a potted fig into a 1/2 wine barrel that was about 6 inches wider, painted white, and I had styrofoam peanuts around it for insulation to keep it cool. That tree also dried out more on hot days, than the in-ground trees. It did stay cooler than leaving it exposed, however. Some fig forum members have planted their potted figs in the ground. I did a seaarch and I haven't found those entries, but I remember them pretty well. The general idea was that the trees grew roots through the holes in the pots, and when they were dug up, those roots were cut off. This makes digging them a challenge, so one grower used pots that had its bottom holes covered, and had holes in the sides at the bottom. I guess they used a 3/4" drill or something similar, to cut those holes. That was easier to work with. Depending on how big your trees are, they should also be top-pruned and root-pruned while dormant. That helps keep them from transpiring too much water in the summer and also from becoming too root bound. Hopefully someone more expert than I am will also respond, but this should be a little helpful. In the end, my potted fig efforts resulted in fruit drop during hot weather, so I planted mine in-ground again. Some growers have great success with containers, so this year I am thinking about growing containinerized figs again due to cold winter scares December 2008.

I'm not sure that planting in ground is always the right solution. It probably depends on how large the palm is when it goes into the ground. For example, I planted a small washy last spring and it needed most of the summer to get the roots established. So I saw maybe 2 or 3 small strap leaves. I overwintered it with only leaves piled against it and an upside down planter. It survived but I'm not sure how fast it can rebound at such a young age. Based on this 1 week comparison, it appears to be growing. One thing though is I'm not sure of my soil quality at this location. I had a sabal birmingham in this location that eventually died. I plan on getting soil testing down this year. Washy on 3/17... Washy on 3/26...

I know this is an old question, and that the OP received some answers on another forum. Just wanted to share a nice article about edible flowers, linked below. Rugosa and gallica roses are mentioned. Here is a link that might be useful: edible flowers

I've never grown a fig in a pot inside. To get maximum fruit, they need sun. Not sure about fake sun with your track lighting. Tiger Stripe fruit is much better than Brown Turkey, but it can grow to be a big tree too. All figs can be kept pruned to a certain size. Some trees have two crops. First crop is on old wood. Second on new wood. To prune your tree, let it fruit. It will go dormant in winter. That is the time to prune. If you prune off too much old wood, you will lose your First crop AKA Breba crop. But by pruning, you will encourage a lot of new growth and that is where your main crop will happen. Good luck to you!