Well, VdB tastes very good, like raspberry jam. I have Peters Honey as well and it can be very sweet with no tart counter balance. Panache looks cool and has a "blood orange" taste to me.

VdB really is amazing you should get it....

Thank you! I've never tasted VdB before, but am leaning towards that one. Is it different enough from the black mission? And you would prefer that one to Peter's Honey?

jujigirl, you live in fig heaven, you should be able to grow any fig available. The fig wasp lives there so you can grow figs besides common figs. If you haven't done so already you should join Figs 4 Fun and ask this question.

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/

ooh, and one more question since I can't seem to find this, but would they all ripen at the same time? It would be great to get on a different schedule, but maybe that's not possible.

Thank you! I'll join over there. And by the way, I used to live in Colorado - loved it! (And was broken hearted this past super bowl...sigh)

I grow Black Jack, VdB and Panache. All three are excellent in my locale and keep me loaded with figs. I've given up trying to determine which of them is best. Black Jack is honeyed, big and juicy, with very soft flesh. VdB is small, jammy, and super sweet. Panache is jammy, juicy, handsomely ornamental/variegated, and doesn't appeal to birds as the others do. All three stay pretty compact and are generally well-behaved trees.

Nice! And isn't black jack a dwarf the Black Mission? If that's true, do they taste the same?

Black Jack is a Brown Turkey type, not all fig lovers like them. It's a kind of dividing line for how fig tastes run. Black Mission is the classic fig newton flavor, BJ is a huge fruit, honeyed or syrupy when it's right, a completely different eating experience. BM is a monster of a tree if left to it's own devices. BJ is much smaller and well behaved.

When I first became interested in figs, I checked out articles on the UC Davis site and in their taste tests, VdB and Panache got the highest ratings. I have both of those and many others, all in ground here in Riverside county. VdB is a smaller tree, so it depends on the space you have.

Borjosotte Gris is reputed to taste more like a strawberry than a strawberry, so I have that one too. My current favorite is Strawberry Verte because of it's vigor and size. It is highly prolific. I love it's shape and huge leaves. There is one fig per leaf! Plus, it's just delish! I have that one growing large for shade. A monster tree has it's place!

As long as you stay away from the brown turkey, you should be happy!

Oh, and mrclint, figs are wonderful on the BBQ!

Suzi

I'm also a fan of Strawberry Verte. I liked it much better than Black Jack. But I may not have had enough heat and light, along with too much water, for best quality Black Jack.

Plus if you have the fig wasp all this can change.

I have both a Kadota and a VdB, and both are quite good. I just added the Kadota last spring, so I've only tried a few, but the figs were big, plump, and very juicy (similar to Brown Turkey, but sweeter and more flavorful). By comparison, the VdB figs are smaller, seem less likely to crack/split, and have a very rich flavor and drier, meatier texture than Kadota. As a bonus, it's also very ornamental with pretty, deeply lobed leaves. While I can't recommend Green Ischia/Strawberry Verte based on experience, I think it's well worth considering given the high marks for flavor that it receives from other growers. I added one late last summer, and I'm looking forward to trying the figs this year.

fruitnut has sung the praises of Strawberry Verte for years, and I've never read a bad word any where about it. It's kind of like Col de Dame and some other highly touted varieties that I've never seen in my local nurseries. Since I'm not a collector or fruit hunter, these just never made it into my yard. My three fig trees give me a good selection and keep me going just fine from May or June (when and if I get a breba crop) all the way to frost.

jujigirl, what did you decide? Truth be told, there are no bad figs (Yes, I've had standard Brown Turkey that were outstanding).