Saint Rita

[cjmach1973]

So I bought a tree called Saint Rita. It is supposed to be good for shorter seasons. Anyone have any thoughts? I couldn't find it on the varieties list.

[strudeldog]

It's a very good fig.

[cjmach1973]

nice picks-how many years before you got figs?

[strudeldog]

I believe It was 2nd year off an airlayered plant, so the year after the layer was taken. It was high up on my list of winners last year and I think tasted about 80 cultivars

[Altadena Mara]

My SR tree is a very slow grower, arrived as a short pole last year and is just beginning to show some branching this year after breaking dormancy. If you search the fig boards, you’ll find some very enthusiastic reviews of the taste even though it’s a small fig: a complex dark berry flavor similar to a mulberry or blackberry/strawberry with the skin contributing a lot to the flavor. People report that it’s sensitive to cold and stops growing until it’s warm, ripening around mid-August, September in Michigan. There’s even a nice fig story associated with St. Rita at: http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/RITA.htm

[smithmal]

I have St. Rita growing in a container. I'm going into the 2nd season with it. Have heard good things about it. Here's some info I have on the variety:

1. Flavor Category: Bordeaux Berry
2. Cold Hardiness (zone 6b): must be container grown
3. Ripening Start date (zone 6b): mid-August

[hammerwood]

Do you know the story behind this tree?

Shortly before her death from her bed at the convent Rita asked a friend to bring her a rose from her garden at her home. It was a cold and snowy January and certainly not the season for roses to bloom, but to gratify the whim of a woman who was desperately ill, the friend went there and was amazed to find a rose bush in full bloom. Picking a rose and taking it back to the convent, she asked Rita if she could get her something else. "Yes," was the answer; "bring me back two figs from the my beloved tree in my garden." The friend hastened away to the garden once more and amazingly discovered two ripe figs on a leafless snow bound fig tree.

Rita is sometimes represented in art as holding these emblems. St. Rita of Cascia is especially venerated in Spain, and there and elsewhere she has been called "the saint of the impossible." In all countries persons who have especially heavy burdens to bear have been comforted and helped by meditating on the example of this saint, and praying to her.

Another great fig tree story!

[Harborseal]

Great Story, Mara and Rick! I agree with Mara that St R does not like the cold and won't produce well. She gave me the best figs I've tasted so far one year but the next cold summer there were no figs and the one after that it rained for months and I got 3 very small, insipid figs. A lot of plants produced poorly that year.

[greenfig]

Great stories!
Do we know for sure that our StRita fig has any connection to the story?

[hammerwood]

Probably not any more than they say that people with the same last names are some how related. Maybe in Cascia, Italy there are still some trees that can be traced to the one in her garden at Rocca Porrena. It does however make a good story about a good fig with a namesake of a Saint.

[fruitnut]

St Rita is one of my best figs as grown in a greenhouse. The taste is very rich and it has been productive. For my operation it tastes at least as good as RdB, is more productive, and isn't so overly vigorous.

[paully22]

Yeah, a good story. I have never place any interest in this variant where I have for some time. It is still
in its 1 gal pot. It deserve a new pot starting today.

[strudeldog]

I have one I call Satan Rita. It was my 1st purchase of Saint Rita. I think this Satan requires the wasp It came from Cali and it did not develop the fruit it set last year and they all dropped when small. I will likely get rid of it, but I might keep it around as a reminder to be sure of my sources. I thought I recognized the seller name, but being a New Years Eve purchase I didn't double check. Keeping it around seems to work as I think it was my last ebay fig purchase. As I walk my orchard I stop at that tree and curse occasionally, so I will probably keep her around with those speakers I bought out of the Van in the parking lot years ago. Anyway I thought Satan Rita was a appropriate label

[Harborseal]

Mine will drop figs if it's too cold and possibly if it's too wet.

[strudeldog]

Bob,

It's not a Saint Rita at all that's just what it was sold to me as.

[slowpoke]

Bringing back an old thread, does anyone know where the mother tree Saint Rita was found, and what the actual origin story is?

[HarveyC]

I checked emails and old F4F posts this morning. My Saint Rita came from Rui back east in 2014. I will try to find out his source, though I haven't talked to him in years and don't know that he grows figs any longer.

In posts on F4F in 2014 it confirms my memory that Robert D introduced this variety around 2010 after obtaining it from a neighbor who had brought it from Italy. See posts Groups and #11 at http://figs4funforum.arghchive.com/p...listed-6691179

[slowpoke]

HarveyC thank you so much for digging in, wouldn't expect it especially at such a busy time for you!

So based on the thread, it appears to have been propagated from someone named Robert D/rob0520 from F4F (who is Albanian) from Michigan, who got it from his presumably Italian neighbor, probably brought over from Cascia, Italy. And the fig is named after the local patron saint there, Rita of Cascia d. 1457 (who's known for getting a couple of figs in the middle of winter .

[HarveyC]

Today is an indoor work day for me, heavy rain today, 0.95 inches from midnight to 9:14am.

[MARCO]

slowpoke They’re very commonly grown in my hometown, just south of Rome. My cousin is a photographer and took these beautiful pictures of the bounty from his tree in his orchard in Itri, province of Latina. This is a hotbed for incredible figs.

[Dfoster25]

I had mine listed as sourced from Encanto Farms. Saint Rita 849

I found it to be similar to a Hardy Chicago.

[Sod]

The one I had for a couple years growing it out for donation was an Etna as well.