Common Name: Angelique Fig^[1]

Scientific Name: Ficus carica cv.

In 1790, Thomas Jefferson planted the "White Angelie Fig" in an area "under the garden wall."^[2] He referred to this area as the "submural beds," where the plants had a warm, south-facing microclimate necessary to bear fruit. This fig is a French variety grown outside of Paris, seen by Jefferson while living there, and brought it over to Monticello.^[3] However, there is no further mention of this particular fig as Jefferson seemed to prefer the Marseilles Fig.^[4]

In general, Jefferson had success in growing figs in Virginia.^[5] The plant was sometimes difficult to harvest in colder climates compared to the Deep South, so he provided protective covering for the plants. He planted them as early as 1769 in the orchard and included figs in a 1774 South Orchard plan.^[6]

The Angelique fig is a half hardy, deciduous shrub that produces large, sweet fruits with cream-colored flesh and greenish-white, darkly striped skin in late summer and fall.

Footnotes

1. ↑ This article is based on a Center for Historic Plants Information Sheet.
2. ↑ "Feb. 1790 Planting." University of Virginia.
3. ↑ See "List of Baggage Shipped by Jefferson from France," PTJ, 15:376.
4. ↑ Peter J. Hatch, The Fruits and Fruit Trees of Monticello (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1998), 166.
5. ↑ Ibid, 161.
6. ↑ Ibid.

Further Sources

• Betts, Garden Book
• Dutton, Joan Parry. Plants of Colonial Williamsburg. Williamsburg: Colonial Williamsburg, 1979
• Hatch, Peter. "Figs 'Vulgar' Fruit or 'Wholesome' Delicacy?" Twinleaf, January 1996
• Leighton, Ann. American Gardens in the Eighteenth Century. Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1986
• Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants