ADD SOME ZEST TO LIFE
With tender, loving care oranges, lemons and even kumquats can thrive in Britain
ONE of the delights, on a recent Italian holiday, was strolling among lemon trees in the hotel garden. They grew in huge antique pots that lined the pathways so guests could enjoy their perfume.
Britain is too cold for citrus trees to live outdoors permanently, but we’ve nurtured them here for 300 years.
In Georgian times, potted oranges were set out for display each summer. In autumn, they were crammed into glazed orangeries or greenhouses.
Few of us have orangeries, but anyone can grow citrus plants. You could manage a kumquat on a windowsill while a city balcony might be mild enough for a nearhardy calamondin orange or even a lemon, if temperatures stay above 2c.
You might pick only two lemons a year, but a drizzle cake will taste fantastic when flavoured with home- grown juice and zest. You can buy citrus trees in any season. Try The Citrus Centre at Pulborough, West Sussex ( citrus centre. co. uk), or Kent’s Victoriana Nursery (victoriananursery.co. uk). Mail order suppliers Unwins and Thompson & Morgan also sell them.
PIP IT UP
FOR citrus bushes on the cheap, plant the pips. It’s great fun — children love growing them — and they make attractive plants with aromatic leaves and fragrant flowers. But unlike named or grafted varieties, they are unlikely to bear edible fruit. The procedure couldn’t be simpler. Save pips from an orange, mandarin, grapefruit or lemon. If you find a pip showing some green, treasure it — this will grow more quickly than a dormant seed. Fill a 7 cm pot with compost, firm it gently, water thoroughly and let it drain. Then insert up to five pips into the damp compost, making sure they’re just covered. Put the pots somewhere warm — a heated propagator is ideal, but a windowsill is nearly as good — and keep the soil moist, but not saturated. When the seedlings have grown large enough to handle, pot them up individually. Citrus trees prefer slightly acid soils, so grow them in specially formulated citrus compost — ericaceous compost is the next best thing. The leaves on young plants are attractive and aromatic from the start. But blossom may not appear for a year or two and the growth habits of such seedlings are unpredictable.
JUICY CHOICES
IF YOU want fruit as well as beauty, the calamondin orange is the best entry level variety. If
YOU can buy a collection of six heleniums for £ 8.99 or 12 for £ 17.98 and receive a further six free. Each collection comprises two each of Helena Red, Helena Gold and Helena Orange. Flowers June to October. Delivery within 14 days. To order by debit/ credit card, call 0844 472 4161, quoting MGS965, or visit mailgardenshop. co. uk. Or send a cheque made payable to Mail Garden Shop to: Mail Garden Shop Helenium Offer, Dept MGS965, 14- 16 Hadfield Street, Old Trafford, Manchester M16 9FG.
happy, they produce flowers and fruit constantly, and though these are too sharp to eat raw, they’re brilliant for marmalade. Among lemons, the thinskinned, uber- juicy Meyer is prized, but it’s not the easiest to grow. So, if you’re a novice, try the rugged Ponderosa instead. Its huge, thick- skinned fruit are ideal for making candied peel. Four Seasons lives up to its name, providing flowers and fruit for much of the year. Orange trees are less successful as they need Mediterranean sun to make the fruit sweet and juicy. But they’re pretty. And if you grow grapefruit, limes or clementines from pips, you can enjoy the leaf aromas even if they never bear decent fruit. Kumquats, though, are highly productive as well as pretty. They need constant warmth, so are best kept indoors all year round. The small oval fruits can be eaten whole — soft peel and all. To experience citrus heaven, dip a kumquat into molten chocolate. Mmmmm!