Chicago Hardy Fig Tree

Chicago Hardy Fig (Ficus carica 'Chicago Hardy')
Height: 20 feet Spread: 20 feet Sunlight: Full sun to partial shade Hardiness Zone: 6a Other Names: Bensonhurst Purple Fig
 
Description: The Chicago Hardy Fig is noted for its exceptional winter hardiness and can be maintained as a large shrub in cooler areas with some winter protection. It produces sweet purplish-red fruit in fall, in clusters among its interesting lobed leaves. This variety is also a great container plant.
 
Edible Qualities: The Chicago Hardy Fig is commonly grown for its edible qualities, though it also has ornamental merits. It produces plum purple fruit (technically 'pomes') usually ready for picking from early to mid-fall. The fruits have a sweet taste and are most often used for fresh eating, cooking, and preserves.
 
Common Uses for the Fruit:
Fresh Eating
Cooking
Preserves
 
Features & Attributes:
Foliage: Attractive dark green foliage with chartreuse veins on a tree with a round habit of growth. The lobed leaves are highly ornamental but do not develop appreciable fall color.
Fruits: Showy plum purple pomes carried in abundance in mid-fall. The fruit can be messy if allowed to drop on lawns or walkways and may require occasional clean-up.
 
Landscape Attributes:
Deciduous tree with a more or less rounded form.
Average texture that blends into the landscape but can be balanced by one or two finer or coarser trees or shrubs for an effective composition.
Requires occasional maintenance and upkeep. Best pruned in late winter once the threat of extreme cold has passed.
Good choice for attracting birds to your yard.
Not particularly attractive to deer, which tend to leave it alone in favor of tastier treats.
No significant negative characteristics.
 
Recommended Uses:
Accent
Shade
Hedges/Screening
General Garden Use
Container Planting
 
Planting & Growing:
Grows to about 20 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 20 feet.
Low canopy with a typical clearance of 1 foot from the ground, making it suitable for planting under power lines.
Grows at a medium rate and can live for 50 years or more under ideal conditions.
Thrives in full sun to partial shade.
Prefers average to evenly moist conditions but will not tolerate standing water. May require supplemental watering during periods of drought or extended heat.
Not particular about soil type or pH, and able to handle environmental salt.
Highly tolerant of urban pollution and will thrive in inner-city environments.
Consider applying a thick mulch around the root zone in winter to protect it in exposed locations or colder microclimates.
This is a selected variety of a species not originally from North America.
 
Container Planting:
Ideal for use in outdoor pots and containers. Its height makes it a good choice for the 'thriller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination; plant it near the center of the pot, surrounded by smaller plants and those that spill over the edges. It can also be grown alone in a suitable container.
Note that when grown in a container, it may not perform exactly as indicated on the tag—this is to be expected.
Also note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent watering than they would in the yard or garden.