Lemon Tree – Very Pretty

Remember this song? “Lemon tree, very pretty, and the lemon flower is sweet.” Well my wonderful husband gave me a dwarf Meyer lemon tree for Christmas. It’s only a year old but as you can see, it already has several buds. I can’t wait for the buds to open. How will they look, and perhaps more importantly, smell.

This tree comes from fourwindsgrowers.com. They say it can grow as much as six feet tall!I guess I’ll need to eventually put it on castors to make moving around easier. If you’ve read some of my previous posts, you know that I do not have a good, sunny spot in my house, so husband extraordinaire went to the hardware store and hooked me up with a grow-light, putting it on a timer so the lemon tree will get enough light. I’ve been giving it a thorough soaking once a week. The next step is fertilizer. I’ve read that they need a lot of nitrogen. Something like a 30-10-10 with trace minerals is best.

I have no idea how long it will be before I see lemons on the tree. At first I was worried that I would need to hand pollinate the flowers. I have seen the process online and on TV where someone takes a little paintbrush and transfers the pollen from one flower to another, but thankfully I found out from the grower’s website that citrus trees are “self-fruitful,” or self-pollinating. The Four Winds Growers website does say that it will take nine months before the lemons will be ready to eat. Seems like a long time, but I’m okay with it. For now, I just smile when I look at it and sing “Lemon tree, very pretty.”