I spoke with Christine last night and she alerted me to the possibility that my “Improved Meyer” lemon tree might not be a dwarf tree.  After doing research and reading up on the Meyer tree on Widipedia, I found out that Four Winds Growers played a signicant part in the creation of this variety.  I called up the nursery and was guided to the answer by identifying the graft.  There were no elbow shaped grafts located on the plant, so thus we deduced this was a dwarf tree.  Whew!

Karen at Four Winds Growers pointed me to the following link for more information on their history.

History – Dwarf Citrus Trees – Four Winds Growers.

Citronella

It’s difficult to see, but there are no flowers or lemons on it just yet.  I had taken this shot with my iPhone so unfortunately we can’t enlarge the picture.  This spot ended up being too shady and I had to move the tree out into the full sun.  Citrus trees love lots of sun and water.  Watering every other day is definitely not excessive.  Good drainage, however, is important.

For about two years I’ve been saying over and over again how much I would love to have my very own lemon tree. Being a renter in San Jose didn’t make me feel very confident that I could do a good job with taking care of an actual tree. I also figured this tree would eventually become about 15 feet tall and then what would I do with it? Well, that all changed when my friend Christine inspired me when she mentioned that she had a lemon tree in her down town apartment. I started doing research into lemon trees and found out that there are fruit bearing trees suitable for urban horticulture.

I just planted the Meyer Lemon tree I had purchased two weeks ago today. I quickly came up with the name Citronella. What makes the Meyer tree perfect for urban horticulture purposes, is that it stays relatively small (about 6 ft tall at most and 5 ft wide) and manages to bear tons of fruit at this stature. The instructions state that Citronella requires 6 hours of daily sunlight and watering twice a week. I’ve read in tons of other websites that in the winter I’m supposed to bring Citronella inside the house as she won’t survive the cold temperatures. Citronella already has tons of flower buds on it already. I’m really hoping for actual fruit this summer.

Ever since I purchased Citronella I have noticed driving through different neighborhoods like Milpitas and Los Gatos many thriving small lemon trees with tons of fruit on them. This is so exciting that my plant might have a shot at doing well too!