This is an excellent idea for several reasons.
Ask Ross. He’s probably already discussed it elsewhere.
I am in 8A too, and am doing a trial for my climate.
I think they will like my dry and warm summers but my issues are short season and too cold in winter.
Some of mine are similar to each other but I thought, maybe one will do better over the others? We shall see.
This is my first winter with figs.
Here’s how far my fig bug took me:
Black Madeira KK
Figo Preto
MBVS
White Madeira
Strawberry Verte
Smith
I-258
RLBV
BNR
Olympian
Col de Dame Rimada
Adriatic Jh
Thermalito
Mary Lane
VdB
Bourjasotte Grise
Mary Lane I got because it was so cheap when I bought another one from the same nursery so I thought why not give it a shot?
I might have misspelled some, if so, I will correct later.
Some we bought with roots and some we rooted.
One thing I can say is Adriatic JH is still holding onto its leaves long after the others have dropped. Both of the Adriatic JH sticks that we rooted have leaves right now as I type this.
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Lots of great varieties in there… some of my favorites 
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Wow, we’re great news to hear about VdB! Thank you for sharing.
Now that you’ve said that I’d like to let everybody know that Ison’s sells it for a great price and it was pretty darn tall.
Thank you!
Since I know jack sh*t about figs, I had to harass Fruitnut and others for recommendations.
I wish I could take credit for my choices.
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That is often a good way to go. However, with figs it it is hard to go wrong. There really aren’t many that aren’t good. I have my favorites, but like 90% of the 100+ fig varieties I have tried are between good and great 
Adapted to grow well in your environment is something that you can only tell by trying it first
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Thank you @Melon and @zone7a. I was hoping that some folks who live in warm climate would chime in about festivals in their area where you can taste a lot of different figs. I’m willing to travel.
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My pleasure! I’ve never been to the one on staten island, but it was the first one that came up on a search! A smaller one near me is 1794 Gilbertsville Road, Pottstown, PA Redirecting... and will be september 13 2025. If you’re willing to travel maybe you can find some overlapping dates and make it a fun roadtrip!
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I think that one was the one i saw too! I remember laughing about “fig king” 
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No fig fests to report here but if you joined CRFG you could go to tastings. It’s worth it even living out of state.
I think I did hear of local groups in the SE.
They do one in Maryland, usually a few hours west of me, or close to DC. ( via the DMV fig growers FB group. Usually 2x a year. There is also one or 2 a year in PA in the Lancaster and Philly area…and the Staten Island one.
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In Washington state, I’ve been told there’s 2 year and it’s at random locations. I only knew about it through the regional chat.
I gotta warn you though… everyone will feed into your addiction also here its not much of a festival, but more of a get together between friends and enthusiasts. Potluck style as well 
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Look what I just found
- Greek, ‘green fig, spoon sweet’ https://www.etsy.com/listing/889514175/handmade-fig-spoon-sweet-greek-spoon
- Greek, ‘fig marmalade’ https://www.etsy.com/listing/863614414/handmade-fig-marmalade-greek-fig
- Greek, ‘green fig marmalade’ https://www.etsy.com/listing/867586852/handmade-green-fig-marmalade-greek-green
- Greek, ‘dark fig, spoon sweet’, 500 gram https://www.ktimakalantzi.com/index.php/en/spoon-sweets/fig-500g-1-detail
- Greek, ‘dark fig, spoon sweet’, 1000 gram Spoon sweets: Fig (1000g)
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That Spoon Sweet looks so cool and probably tastes amazing. Coming from California I’m way too paranoid to eat other people’s marmalade or jams. I have so many pests I cut in half and inspect every fig before eating them.
@Melon looking fantastic. Some of them look ready for a bigger pot 
that’s the fun part about rooting early indoors. Those little tiny pots well organized pots turn into a jungle taking up all the space. At least you have a nice big house to keep them in. Good job 
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To me ‘Spoon Sweet’ sounds like some sort of fruit preserves which means that the fruit is not used whole, also fig jams, and marmalade the fruit are not used whole either.
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I think that one is preserved but kept whole. Idk why but it made me think of green eggs and ham lol. I would definitely try this though. Angel food cake and fresh whipping cream.
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I’m not from cali but i do the same 
i found out i was allergic to the giant maggots in cherries after eating so many only to be told to split them to check for bugs. Also found a microscopic parasite looking thing in a Plum once. Couldn’t either for literal years after that. I saw/ate the cherry in worm when i was 13’ish… I’m in my 30’s now just recently within the last few years, brought myself up to be able to eat cherries again after that. I found a weird looking bug causing holes and tunneling in my strawberries in Colorado too a few years ago. I can’t not double, triple check my fruits unless i know it’s a fruit that rarely has bugs tunneling through like feijoa and passion fruit. Here in Washington, we don’t get many fig bugs or any at all so that’s one of my safe fruits that i don’t feel like i have to be too vigilant with thankfully.
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Yeah I’m like a an inspector. I’ll often take a picture and blow it up to check first.
You’re lucky here we have different flies that lay eggs in them, dried fruit beetles and sap beetles, swd and other fruit flies and of course ants. And other critters like below here.
I don’t know what was but I think some kind of moth worm.
And I don’t know what the heck this was.
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That is a type of preserves that is common in the south eastern USA, and I believe in south and central America as well.
This is also fruit preservatives Strawberry Preserves {No Canning Required!} - Grandbaby Cakes
I don’t see how whole figs could be called ‘Spoon Sweet’, which basically means sweet and spoonable
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