August 5th "Croatian Figs!!"
In 1998 or 99, I can't remember which, we had a holiday in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Whilst there I bought a string of dried figs from a local gentleman in the market.
On our return I could not resist planting one in a flower pot to see what happened, and the result was dozens of little fig seedlings.....they're ever so easy to grow. I kept the best one and it has grown happily in a big pot by the coal house door ever since. It has never produced any fruit until now, and look..... lots of little figs are forming!! I doubt if they'll have time to ripen into anything edible, but it's good to see them all the same!
Strangely they don't seem to produce a flower, how does this work?
To answer my own question I have found this.........Flowers: The tiny flowers of the fig are out of sight, clustered inside the green "fruits", technically a synconium. Pollinating insects gain access to the flowers through an opening at the apex of the synconium. In the case of the common fig the flowers are all female and need no pollination.
So there you go!