Fig bushes in snow. The past four winters, all fig trees here have been top-killed to the soil line, apart from limbs bent over to the ground and buried in mulch.

Dropping briefly to about 8 degrees Fahrenheit recently, the temperatures this winter have probably not quite been low enough to kill all fig wood above ground. That said, it’s difficult to tell at this point. Will see what happens the rest of the winter.

***UPDATE: Temperatures eventually dropped to 3 degrees Fahrenheit (-16 Celsius) a couple times, a mild winter here that allowed the wood of the fig bushes’ trunks and limbs to survive up to 4 feet above ground on many of the bushes, including trunks and limbs up to a maximum of 4 feet high on all of the bushes on relatively dry or well draining banks. The bushes at the bottoms of the banks or on more soggy banks all died back to the ground again. Wet in summer, dry in winter for figs in harsh climates. The bushes that did not die all the way back to the ground produced more figs than the ones that did, though all the Mt Etna bushes ripened figs regardless. An LSU Purple bush, despite dying all the way to the ground, and despite growing in only half-day sun, was the second best in-ground producer to Mt Etna.***

Compare winter photo above left of Mt Etna to summer shots below of Mt Etna: