We live in zone 5, getting down to -10 for a few nights every winter. Last year I read about Chicago Figs and got a 6" rooted start. We kept it in our greenhouse and by the end of summer it was 2 1/2 ft. tall and hardy. It spent the winter in the unheated attached greenhouse where it got down to +10 many nights and it didn't die back. It is now 5 ft tall and we had at least a doz. tasty figs. We will repot it and keep it in the greenhouse over the winter and put it in the ground in the Spring to see how it does. We got more starts when we saw how well it wintered over and now have 3 more Chicago Figs that have grown into great looking 3 ft. trees...just in case #1 doesn't make it outside if/when we have a harsh winter. (we have seen -30 here on 3 occasions in the past 20 years) We also have what we think is a Brown Turkey fig in the same greenhouse and it dies back but comes back in the Spring.
