North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Michelle Horner" <shelly2@wi.rr.com>]

yes Deb, its worthwhile if only for the fragrance of the flowers.  I got sucked down this deep hole by Roger Swain's articles several years ago--as he admired his dwarf kumquats in a window of his home in the Vermont winter.  Now I have a veritable citrus orchard that I haul in and out of my basement 2x/year.  A kiffer lime for Thai cooking, 2 calamondine oranges--very prolific; 2 kumquats--very prolific; 1 lemon, 1 lime tree (shrub would be better description).  They seem to blossom very late fall, early winter, so I hand pollinate with plucked male blossoms or a Q-tip.  One small tree is tremendously fragrant!!  It will be smelled all over the house.  (friends ask what new Johnson Wax product I'm using!)  I am in SE Wis, zone 4/5.  I put the pots in my veggie garden for the summer, for height and interest.  They are also fun to train in a sort of mini-espalier or Bonsai.  I also have a dwarf banana, and 2 dwarf pomegranates (these bloom with a beautiful fuchsia-type blossom that I have not been able to pollinate or cross-pollinate--but are also worth the show in the middle of a blustery winter)

 

I guess that is more like three-cents worth.  But sincere.

 

Michelle Horner