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It’s a LIME

August 11th, 2012

I have 2 citrus trees that lead a very pampered life. If you remember, I purchased them on my trip to Monticello in 2010. The prime window acreage in the living room is all theirs during our cold NE Ohio winters. They’re even lovingly carried out to the front porch to enjoy any unseasonably nice weather we have in late winter. These two plants truly are my favorite houseplants, mostly because I want them to produce fruit.


This spring, the key lime tree produced 3 or 4 blooms, sadly none of them were pollinated. That gave me hope that it was finally old enough to fruit. I’ve been watching it like a hawk all summer waiting for blooms. Sure enough, two weeks ago I noticed buds. Last week it started blooming profusely. I moved it to the front porch right by the catnip plant, which is blooming at attracting tons of pollinators thus hopefully increasing the odds of pollinating the lime blossoms.

Sure enough, earlier this week I noticed that at least a few of the blooms had been pollinated and were sporting tiny lime fruit. Will they mature into fruit? You really never know when it’s the first time a plant blooms. Sometimes it takes them a cycle or two to figure out what’s going on. I certainly hope all these little blooms turn into limes, if so, our glasses will be filled with limeade in a few months!


When we get to Maine I hope to add to my citrus collection. I’ll have a bigger house and more windows to house them. Kumquats, Meyer Lemon and a few other varities are on my “must-buy” list.

Do you have any favorite houseplants? Do you grow any edible houseplants?

13 Comments to “It’s a LIME”
  1. Caroline on August 11, 2012 at 7:59 am

    Congratulations! We have a year-old citrus menagerie– key lime, meyer lemon, and a few valencia oranges– and I can’t wait for them to bear fruit. Your key lime is beautiful– how do you care for it?

    Reply to Caroline's comment

    • Susy on August 11, 2012 at 9:05 am

      I fertilize on: Valentine’s Day, Memorial Day & Labor Day and give it plenty of sun and water with an organic fertilizer. That’s pretty much it. It lives outside in the spring/summer/fall and inside during our cold Ohio winters. They seem pretty easy care!

      Reply to Susy's comment

  2. angie h on August 11, 2012 at 8:30 am

    I don’t have any house plants at the moment. I would love to have a citrus tree growing. My father-in-law has a lemon tree that is his baby. The thing is probably almost as tall as me (5’9″) and he has had to seriouslytrim it back so it is manageable. He has had it for years but I’m not sure it has ever flowered….I think he needs a second one.

    Reply to angie h's comment

  3. Andrea Duke on August 11, 2012 at 9:01 am

    There’s a blog I read from time to time called ‘A Growing Tradition”. He has a big love for citrus you may enjoy.

    Reply to Andrea Duke's comment

    • Susy on August 11, 2012 at 9:04 am

      I’ll have to check it out.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  4. Maybelline on August 11, 2012 at 9:44 am

    What a cute tree. Don’t be discouraged if you lose fruit again. Soon you’ll be looking for freezer space for all that juice. I don’t have a lime; but I love to prune my trees . The scent is terrific.

    Reply to Maybelline's comment

  5. goatpod2 on August 11, 2012 at 9:54 am

    We have a lot of house plants here. We brought back an orange and lemon plants from FL last year but the orange tree didn’t do too well but our lemon tree is doing wonderful! We have a lot of aloe plants and some other plant we got from my sister-in-law which her Mom brought to her from India.

    Amy

    Reply to goatpod2's comment

  6. Misti on August 11, 2012 at 10:59 am

    We’ve grown variegated lemons and key limes before. We have some oranges now that we are working on growing.

    Reply to Misti's comment

  7. KimH on August 11, 2012 at 11:26 am

    That baby lime is sooo cute! Love the pic!

    Reply to KimH's comment

  8. Jamera on August 11, 2012 at 2:10 pm

    We are in the same boat. My two year old calamondin tree has about 12 teensy fruitlets that I am currently obsessing over. I don’t know if I can wait the year(!) that it takes for them to ripen. But my current favorite edible houseplant is a bay laurel that I have had since college, I think it may outlive me!

    Reply to Jamera's comment

    • Susy on August 12, 2012 at 9:10 am

      A year to ripen, wow that takes patience! I’ve been wanting to get a bay laurel too, plans for that this coming spring.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  9. Jess Latham on September 12, 2012 at 8:19 pm

    What kind of soil mix did you use? I have two meyer lemon trees and somehow over watered them, even though I thought I had the soil mix just right so that wouldn’t happen. All the growing guides say to water until water is running from the drainage holes, although I think it’s totally wrong advice. I repotted them and added more perlite and didn’t water so much. The leaves stopped falling off but I still don’t have any new leaves and it looks kind of bare. Now it’s starting to bloom. I plan to pick them off so it can put it’s energy into making leaves.

    Reply to Jess Latham's comment

    • Susy on September 12, 2012 at 9:27 pm

      Citrus trees do like a generous amount of water. I always water mine till water comes out the bottom, but I let them dry out completely between waterings. I used potting soil that I mix up myself.

      Reply to Susy's comment

About

This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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