Peter Scotti's earliest memories of Brooklyn are all about figs. "Every house on the block had a fig tree in the back, and a statue of the Virgin Mary or a saint in front," he said.

For decades, Mr. Scotti, 65, has kept alive his family's tradition of tending to fig trees, which have been in neighborhoods like Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, since Italian immigrants started bringing them in the 1880's. But when Mr. Scotti removed the winter "blanket" from his beloved tree this spring, he found only lifeless branches and decided that an electric saw provided the best chance for its survival.

"Now, that's all that's left," he said, gazing down at a four-foot-tall stump remaining in the corner of his garden on Third Place. A few green leaves emerging from the trunk were hopeful signs.

Something is killing many of the fig trees in Brooklyn and throughout the city this spring. Theories abound. Many fig tree owners in Carroll Gardens blame the cold winter. Others say the ashes and pollution from Sept. 11 have damaged the soil. And some suspect part of the problem is that newcomers to once heavily Italian neighborhoods like theirs just do not know the intricacies of caring for a tree more suited to the Mediterranean than to New York.

"Fig trees were treasured," said Dr. Joseph V. Scelsa, dean of the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute at Queens College. "Italians would bring them in as pieces of home. But all of those folk traditions are unfortunately waning."

Dr. Scelsa said that as the "old-timers" age and die, and younger generations of Italian-Americans move on to different neighborhoods, the family fig tree could disappear.

The demographics of the city are certainly changing. The number of New Yorkers who claimed Italian descent fell to about 700,000, according to the 2000 census, from about 840,000 in 1990 and more than a million a decade before that.

Shifting demographics aside, the fig's sensitive nature may also be contributing to its decline. Native primarily to Asia, figs flourish in warm temperate climates. Ever since immigrants brought the trees from areas like southern Italy and Sicily, people have labored to protect them from the harsh New York winters. Generations of New Yorkers have wrapped their trees in burlap, tarpaper or blankets, often covering the top with a bucket. Others bend their fig trees over and bury the tops in the ground during the winter.

Those willing to do the work have been rewarded with plump figs year after year.

So why did so many trees die at once?

"I think what happened this winter is, if the ground stays frozen for too long and there's no moisture available, they die," said the director of horticulture for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Jackie Fazio. "We have no control over Mother Nature."

All four of the botanic garden's fig trees survived this year, she said, but some casualties are to be expected. She warned against overreacting to "die back," or leafless branches, because the trunk may still be alive.

Still, Ms. Fazio understands the current uproar.

"People are so particular about their fig trees. Because they're not from the area, they're really proud to have them," she said. "So they get really upset when they die."

For another Carroll Gardens resident, Assunta Cuomo, upset is an understatement.

"All dry, nothing green," said Mrs. Cuomo, who recently discovered that both of her trees had died this winter. "They used to be beautiful, and big."

This will be the first time in 25 years that she has not had a fig tree in her backyard on Henry Street, said Mrs. Cuomo, who moved to Brooklyn from the Salerno province of Italy. Her garden brims with eggplants, tomato plants, basil, peppers and string beans. But she took out both fig trees that died, she said, and it's not the same without them.

Still, she has hope for the future. Green fig leaves are sprouting up from the dirt near the tiny stump in her garden.

Mr. Scotti said he expected to have plump, ripe figs again in three years. But as he pointed out his neighbors' five dead or ailing fig trees, he said the future of figs in Brooklyn was uncertain.

"It's the old Italians here that keep the figs, and the neighborhood has changed," he said. "We became the old people."

Mr. Scotti and his wife, Barbara, said that the young professionals moving into the neighborhood were "very nice," and that they love to see children running around again. Still, they do not expect new residents to replace the fig trees that died this year.

"Naw, the new people, they're too busy,'' he said. "They don't have the time to work in their yards all of the time."

As he walked through the neighborhood, pointing out more fig tree casualties, he spotted a younger resident and asked her if she had anything to say about the local fig trees.

"Fig trees? I've never seen a fig tree around here," she told him.

"What are you talking about?" he said. "You've been living here for 20 years."

The New York Times > New York Region > Carroll Gardens Journal: A Tree Dies in Brooklyn (Alas, It's a Fig)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/20/
nyregion/20journal.html