Hardy Chicago types like MBVS, Gino’s, Black Greek, and Takoma Violet have been the best overall for me here in 7a. They usually do die back during winter if not protected but still set well that year and ripen a small crop.
I also posted a thread last year observing fruit set on different varieties. Inground Fig Set Observations and Discussion (Pic Heavy)
Overall, the best performers were the Hardy Chicago types, Florea, Easton Purple (LSU Tiger), Longue d’Aout and Adriatic JH. And for split and bug resistance, the Hardy Chicago types usually win hands down.
I did have Celeste in the ground for several years and it set very few figs early enough to ripen after dying back significantly. In my experience all varieties will die back if not protected when they grow late into the season, and the soil here is very rich so even without any water or fertilizer a tree that is young, had winter damaged or was pruned heavily will grow almost up until frost.
People think of fig hardiness in terms of absolute winter lows, but that is a misunderstanding, they can be killed back by relatively mild freezes in the 20s if not well hardened. The only thing that I’ve found controls growth is an established branch structure developed by 2-3 years of protection. People also say that keeping a tree in a container for several years will improve hardiness, but what happens for me is they want to grow like mad a year or 2 after planting and lost that hardiness.
I don’t wrap in the traditional sense, I know it usually works (I also know an old timer who wraps had all of his trees die back during the polar vortex years) but requires a lots of time and materials and I have hundreds of figs to protect. The best and quickest ways for me are to bend young flexible trees nearly flat to the ground and cover with soil, bags of leaves or mulch and older trees get bent over to 3-4 ft. using anchored lines and covered as a row with 2 or more layers of agribon row cover. Those ways are much quicker, so I can have them covered before sudden cold snaps that do damage.
Judging variety hardiness is tricky because of growth rate, but it seems like the Hardy Chicago types, Florea, and Easton Purple perform the best (but still need protection for their first 2-3 years). Adriatic JH and LdA appear to have died back to the main trunks or more this winter unprotected, they are both very strong growers and would have taken quite a while to protect since they got so big.
Growing in containers has worked OK for me, but the crop is so much less because of relative tree size, and I need to load them all into a truck so I am phasing them out because that is a lot of work, the type of irrigation system needed is high maintenance as well. I have been experimenting with compost socks the past few years which I tip over and cover in their growing space to reduce the work, and just use drip tape which is a lot easier to setup and maintain.
Growing fig trees in compost socks. When grown in containers you can get away with more varieties, though fruit set and ripening time can still make things difficult. I think I would dig the Celeste and keep it in a container, early spring is the best time to do it and after a few years of dying back the root crowns become too wide to fit into a container so you should not wait too long. I dug out the one I had in ground but kept a small tree that came to me mislabeled as something else.
I got rid of lots of varieties just because they seemed to be synonyms (there are tons in circulation), choosing the healthiest ones to keep and propagate from. Lot’s of others just never did well and were discarded. Here’s a few I trialed for a while in containers but got rid of and why, off the top of my head.
Verdal Longue- too late ripening, poor fruit set.
Maltese Falcon- Mission type, poor fruit set, unremarkable fruit.
Black Madeira- too late ripening, not sweet enough.
Col de Dame Blanc/Gris- too late ripening.
Panache- too late ripening.
Marseilles White/Lattarula- poor fruit set, bland.
Kadota- splits, unremarkable.
I’m thinking of digging out or grafting over several inground trees this year as well- Noire de Barbentane, Atreano, Sultane, Improved Celeste, and an unknown Brunswick type.