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I've been searching the forums for more information on Mr. Hosey, does anyone know the story of his fig collection? Specifically, I was wondering if he shifted his inventory to a nursery in the area or if the collection is gone for good. I wonder what lucky person purchased his land!
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Zone 7a in Virginia -
I don't know the background, but he got out of figs and moved to New England doing cattle or something.
He sold parts of his collection to a couple f4f forum members, the rest was supposedly killed by the new owners of the house. Most of his collection lives on through us.
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Oh my gosh, that's terrible that the new owners did that! 😕Zone 7a in VirginiaComment
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He became a goat farmer. Michael in WV bought most of his stuff, I believe.My fig photos <> My fig cuttings (starts late January) <> My Youtube VideosComment
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He lived in DC and had a fig orchard in southern Maryland up to about 2001. He now lives in upstate NY. I gave him a Takoma Violet to grow up there in a pot but it is borderline up there for figs unless you have a green house. His orchard still exists, or at least the land does. Nearly all the fig trees have died and it is now overgrown with brambles and saplings. He was really kind to me when I was establishing my collection of trees and allowed me to get cuttings from many different varieties while the orchard was still mostly intact.Steve
D-i-c-k-e-r-s-o-n, MD; zone 7a
WL: Castillon, Fort Mill Dark, White BacaComment
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With Gene's permission Byron did his best to collect & propagate variants collected from Gene's orchard. I
am nor sure how successful Byron efforts were.Comment
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Thank you for all of the responses!Zone 7a in VirginiaComment
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As Paul mentioned above, with permission I did collect most of the varieties that he was growing at his orchard during the time of his transition. At this time I do not know the status of that orchard. He had amassed an impressive collection. I am not prepared for any level of distribution at this time although some have been shared to back up my collection. (that may change in the future) I'm purposely keeping most of them very small due to current space limitations. If you have not already searched this resource, I'd recommend going on the Internet Archive (Way Back Machine) and looking up the old URL http://www.eastcoastfigs.com/ and looking at the resources he had put together.
Byron (Ingevald)Byron - Zone 6a - northeast KSComment
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I bought the trees at his house in DC. It was maybe 60 trees all told. The source Kathleen's Black is there along with a few in ground trees the new owner would not let me dig up. But with the exception of just 2 or 3 extras I bought everything I could.
HarveyC I live in Virginia. thx mggLast edited by mgginva; 04-08-2016, 09:49 AM.Comment
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Kelby started a topic with a list of his figs.
Kevin (Eastern MA - Zone 5b/6a)Comment
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You still haven't figured out what the mystery Gene Hosey Green fig you sent me is, Michael. I can't figure it out either. It doesn't appear to match up with any of Gene's figs on his old site, at least none with enough of a description to get a good idea about. It remains one of the few honey figs in my collection that I'll end up keeping along with LSU Gold, Atreano and maybe Beall. Right now the rest in that class and almost all my sugar figs are looking at purgatory as soon as the end of 2016 unless they show me something this year. That ought to cull about 30 from my collection and make my wife very happy.Originally posted by mgginva View PostNeil
Reno, 6bComment
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Neil, you mentioned beall fig. What about it do you like?Comment
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It remains the sweetest fig I've eaten, or at least the sweetest fig that has a clean finish rather than a really dense, ball of sugar like you sometimes get with a super ripe Celeste or other sugar fig. It's not complex, but there's just something to it that appeals to me. I admit it's dropped in my honey + sugar fig rankings, but that's because it hasn't been very productive for me compared to the others I like, so I'm waffling on whether or not to keep it.
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I went to Gene's old orchard today, I assume for the last time. Out of hundreds of varieties that were growing there around 2011-12 today I could only find about 8 figs that were just barely hanging on. Unfortunately, none were ones that I wanted to collect cuttings from. Nature has moved in very quickly and outcompeted the figs, starving them of light. That, and the cold winters and rodent damage finished off nearly all the figs. I did find one fig with a ripe breba on it and took pics. I believe it was an Aldo's. The breba was excellent. I don't have this variety but I do have another Sal'sC family so didn't bother getting cuttings.You may only view thumbnails in this gallery. This gallery has 4 photos.Steve
D-i-c-k-e-r-s-o-n, MD; zone 7a
WL: Castillon, Fort Mill Dark, White BacaComment
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So can we conclude of this variety compared to the many others: a) more robust, b) planted in a more favorable spot, c) got lucky versus rodents, d) some or all of the preceding? -
Yes, we can definitely conclude that it is more cold hardy than most. But I think a lot has to do with the spot it was planted in which drained well and for some reason wasn't overtaken as quickly by native shrubs/trees. I have Sicilian Red which is supposed to be a closely related fig in the same family. It is quite cold hardy too.
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I wish it was the time of year for snipping I would like to have one of his figs just for the joy of saying this was from Gene's Nursery good bad or indifferent Of course I am not to the stage that I am culling figs from my collection and husband is not rolling his eyes back in his head. since I don't smoke, survived the 60's with my mental facilities intact, growing figs not too bad of an addiction. Where do we go for rehab.....Harvey's or Bass. LOL good story Steve but sad. For every wonderful discovered fig, we lose some wonderful trees to ignorance and neglect. Passing them on to one another like we do keeps memories alive. I only hope we continue to find young peeps and teach them about figs so they can continue our work.Comment
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