Saint James's Square Unknown (London in-ground)

[FMD]

Congrats, Mike. Looking forward to viewing the pictures. I certainly share with you the joy of fig hunting in European cities. We should create a gps fig app for the fig community one day.

[Kelby]

I feel like I read something about London fig trees on f4f one time....but I could be wrong! Sounds like some impressive trees!

[MichaelTucson]

Now Ed... that would be against Da Rules. So any such discussion would refer to purely hypothetical activity. Within that hypothetical domain, it'd be a while (a couple of years?) before any fruit pics would ever surface.

Has anyone else around this forum ever been there and seen those two trees? The one in St. James's Square was a beautiful tree. Both of them were laden with lots of figs.

[eboone]

You sent home cuttings, right

[MichaelTucson]

I just returned from a trip to London. (My first time there... I went on business but took a few days for fun/vacation afterward as well). On my second to last day there, I walked into St. James's Square. (They don't spell it James' there... they spell it James's). Surprise! A beautiful in ground fig tree... very green and doing wonderfully, maybe 25 or 30 feet high? (not sure)). Well groomed by a professional gardener. It's a small city block, surrounded on all four sides by buildings (just a couple of streets leading in/out). Beautiful tree! Lots of other exotic trees there as well (various palms, bamboo, and lots of smaller trees, plus some beautiful roses... a very nicely kept garden). The Ficus carica tree was along the south edge of the garden.

So I spoke with a very nice couple there who were sitting on a bench and heard me exclaim "fig tree!" aloud. They told me of others around London... including a large one by the footbridge in St. James's Park (not the same place... maybe 3/4 miles away). I visited that one too... sprawling tree with multiple trunks. Not as gorgeous-looking, but still a quite healthy tree. The leaves of this one resemble Celeste, to my eye anyway. The canopy is perhaps 25 - 30 feet high but sprawling to over 50 feet wide. Lots of figs on both trees.

Pics will follow, after I get organized from the return.