Chicago Hardy is...well, very hardy!

RandyK

Well-known member
Well, to my surprise and pleasure, my Chicago Hardy inground tree survived the winter with ZERO die back. Amazing. During the winter before this past one, I did a little bit of winter protection, but the polar vortex events still killed it down to the ground. So this past winter I thought, you know, I'm not going to do anything. No protection...it either makes in on its own or it doesn't and just has to grow back from the roots again if it needs to. And so this winter, we had some very cold weather again. At one point, we had a night in the single digits and lots of nights in the teens. So, I just assumed there would be either total die back or at least pretty serious die back. Well, today I decided it was to day to prune it in preparation for spring and to see just how much damage it took.

Well, I was thrilled when I made my cuts to see that there was NO DAMAGE at all. And right up to the tips!

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And, of course, I had to do the scratch test on the pruned parts just to make sure...and the pure green of the scratch test was great to see. And although I really had not planned it, of course when you have super nice, big, fresh cuttings right in front of you...at least some of the cuttings need to be potted up, right? I couldn't resist...
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Just stuck them in one gallon pots with good potting soil...We'll see if they make it or not...Not going to baby these either, so it will be interesting to see how they do. It would be nice to get a jump on some rooted cuttings for the 2025 Fig Frolic! :)
 
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Now ya know I'm gonna love this post, but WOW that is amazing. I'm just so impressed, but even more so considering that is all last year's growth! Chicago Hardy is a standard, and this is a great example as to why. Thank you for sharing your photos!
 
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