Buy some cuttings, grow a tree, watch some video and you’ll have a group of new friends.
Illustration by Maya Murano
Phil D’Angelis remembers the moment that changed everything. It was 2011, during a visit to his ancestral hometown in Italy. “There were fresh figs on the table at lunch,” he says, “and it blew my brain.”
That transformative taste would lead him down a path from casual gardener to fig evangelist, joining a growing community of enthusiasts in the greater Wilmington area.
Across town, Alex Grossman’s journey began with a gift from a neighbor—a brown turkey fig cutting from his tree across the street. “He told me just stick it in some dirt and that it’s gonna grow roots and then I’ll have a fig tree,” Grossman says. “I got really, really excited.” That first cutting failed, rotting away within weeks, but it ignited a passion that would transform his backyard into an urban orchard.
These aren’t just casual gardeners—they’re fig enthusiasts, though some might call them devotees. For them, figs represent a connection to the past, an endless source of curiosity, and a way to share the literal fruits of their labor with an expanding community of like-minded growers.
D’Angelis’s Italian heritage runs deep in his fig cultivation. He recalls stories of his great-grandfather carefully wrapping trees to survive Philadelphia winters, a tradition he now continues in his own way. His backyard has evolved into a fig sanctuary, with mature trees casting shade over rows of potted cuttings, while a greenhouse nurtures rare varieties.
Grossman’s property presents a different but equally dedicated approach: a meticulously planned space featuring a verdant lawn, precisely arranged orchard rows, raised beds, and a greenhouse that serves as a propagation laboratory. Both men have lost count of how many established trees and cuttings they’ve helped distribute throughout the community.
This falls in line with a desire he shares with D’Angelis: to create a Backyard Orchard Culture in Southeastern North Carolina.
The objective of Backyard Orchard Culture, as defined on the website of Californian nursery owner Dave Wilson, “is a prolonged harvest of tree-ripe fruit from a small space in the yard. This is accomplished by planting an assortment of fruit trees close together and keeping them small by summer pruning.”
Says Grossman, “You get more variety, a higher quality and lower quantity, which encourages individuals to cultivate unique fruits that aren’t available in stores or restaurants.” He adds: “I want to be able to eat the best fig in the world. And the only way I’ll do that is to grow it in my backyard; there’s nothing more local than that.”
But which fig to grow? Each man has a favorite, but the holy grail is the Black Madeira fig, named after the Portuguese island where it was discovered. “Eating one is a real event,” says D’Angelis. “You sit there with your eyes closed, chewing. It’s really, really amazing.”
A Black Madeira will take a week to fully ripen. Grossman checks on his every day. A late ripener, the fig is susceptible to splitting if it gets hit with late-summer humidity or rain.
“It tastes like raspberry jam,” says D’Angelis, adding, “It’s a beautiful-looking tree, a beautiful-looking fig, and it tastes ….” He trails off.
Both like the Celeste, because it’s the best-suited to our region due to its water tolerance and it resists splitting and rotting.
D’Angelis also favors the Col de Dame, named after the Balearic Islands. “It’s an Adriatic-type fig,” he says, with green skin and a deep wine-red interior. “The contrast is beautiful, and it has an acidic bite that reminds you of jam or preserves.”
Figs, as he describes them, fall into five flavor profiles: Honey figs have green skin and ivory to deep amber pulp. Adriatic types, like Col de Dame, have berry flavors with dark pulp under green skin. Berry figs have dark skin and an acidic bite when fully ripe. Brown sugar figs have that classic “figgy” molasses flavor, while Katada varieties blend sugar and berry characteristics.
Grossman has his own favorites, tested first in pots before earning a spot in the ground. Smith, an old Southern heirloom, is his top choice for our region. “It’s one of the most rich and delicious-tasting figs that also is capable of not splitting,” he says.
Italian 258, he says, is “rich, berry, juicy and puddles full of honey in the middle.” His prize is the Marion variety, which he discovered is identical to Black Celeste. Because it was so rare, cuttings were selling for hundreds of dollars. “I’m excited to bring Marion to the community.”
