Lemons from your own garden… fiction or reality?

Citrus fruits are very popular and all supermarkets carry many different varieties. Apart from lemons, limes, tangerines, oranges and grapefruits, you can get less known or more “exotic” varieties too. Great and refreshing taste is the thing we love citrus fruits for, butcitrus trees are very beautiful plants too and you can grow some of them in your apartment. We all know that most of citrus trees cannot survive our winters (even though there are also frost-resistant cultivars), and we have to move them inside before the winter. Many of these varieties are ornamental plants but they do produce fruits. Unfortunately, these “ornamental” fruits are not tasty so we do not eat them…

Ornamental citrus

Ornamental citrus (Citrus spp.) is one of the most cultivated citrus trees in our corner of the world. It comes from the Rutaceae family and can grow to a height from 0.5 to 3 meters. Ithas hairless, beautiful elliptic dark green leaves that feel leathery on touch. It blooms from February to September. It has immaculate white flowers that look like five-pointed crowns in clusters. The fruit it produces is called hesperidium and ripens from May to October. Flowers have a wonderful smell so even if you cannot eat the fruit, the smell is worth it.

Photo: Pixabay

Caring for citrus trees

Citrus trees love the sun so, if you can, give your threes as much sunlight as possible. You can place it basically anywhere in your garden or even on a balcony -if the spot gets enough sunlight. Soil should be acidic and contain humus. Citrus fruits need plenty of nutrients but they have rather moderate needs for moisture.

Great for winter gardens

Let your citrus trees rest during the winter and keep them in a room where the temperature ranges from 10 to 15 degrees Celsius and provide moderate watering. These requirements make citrus trees ideal candidates of your winter gardens. If you left your tree at a room temperature all year round, it would probably lose leaves and will not bloom. Because ornamental citruses are very popular, many garden shops carry different types – they can differ in colour of the fruits for example (fruits may be from yellow to red).

Preview photo: Pixabay