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I'm the webmaster for the NECPS, have been since its inception in January '04. Oh, sorry. That's New England Carnivorous Plant Society. Yup. Plants that eat bugs.

Been fascinated by plants, nature, plants, insects, plants, Venus Flytraps, etc. since i was very young. I also always wished i lived in California (that was where the tropical jungle began to my young mind) so i could grow citrus, palms, and other stuff that just wouldn't survive in the USDA zone 4 hometown. (For the uninitiated, that's almost everything except potatoes and wheat.)

So that's me.

My plants:
Citrus: Trovita Orange, Satsuma Owari, Meyer Lemon, Mexican Lime

Nepenthes
Sarracenia
Drosera
Dionaea (Flytraps!)
Byblis
Cephalotus
Utricularia
...and a lone lithops. The squirrels thought his friends looked like nuts. They thought the Nepenthes looked like nuts, and the Flytraps, and the tuberous Sundews. I'm convinced the squirrels are nuts, and would happily wish them away, were a genie provided.

That's all i'm going to say, lest i incriminate myself. Thanks for reading.

________

20050202

Today after much harrassing of the membership of Gardenweb's Citrus forum, i received the four citrus trees that i bought as a birthday present for myself from Four Winds Growers. For anyone considering buying citrus and as OC as i am, here is some of what i learned.


  • Final size of the tree is dependent on container and pruning as much as on rootstock. Don't sweat the exact rootstock.

  • DO buy a tree that has been grafted (preferrably onto a dwarfing rootstock) as that has other advantages.

  • Pick the trees based on what you like to eat. Opinions vary one what will do well indoors, and the voices of experience suggest that almost any variety may or may not do well for you... so get what you want!

  • That said, the Meyer (improved) is probably the most bombproof indoor grower. Limes and lemons and the other sour citrus are more tolerant of cool temperatures for ripening their fruit. Oranges need warmth, and grapefruits even more so. Valencia oranges that ripen in the summer may work well if you can move the tree outdoors to ripen.

  • Bright Leaf has the best prices and comes well recommended, but don't sell dwarfed/grafted trees.

  • Four Winds Growers had the best prices all things considered (of the places i investigated) for a nursery that was prepared to ship to a cold climate, and has a good selection of dwarfed trees.

So with those (and many more) tidbits tucked away in my grey matter, i went ahead and jumped in. Here are some photos of the ingenious packaging technique (i paid the extra $10 for the \"cold weather shipping\" option) Four Winds uses, along with some photos of the graft unions and the medium the trees came in.





The shipping was not completely painless, though. There were two or three leaves dropped by each of the trees.


The medium (repotting the Trovita Orange) is denser than i expected, because there is a light bark mulch on top. I used a mix that was a bit heavier in peat and with less lava, but comparable. It was put in a green nursery pot just slightly deeper, but of greater width, than the present pots. It's so hard to find good, deep&narrow pots...

200503
One month after receiving my four citrus trees from Four Winds Growers, they are all blooming. I transplanted the Trovita Orange a few days after it arrived, because it was the biggest and i only had one pot available. The orange has since lost all but six of its leaves and not burst into new growth like the other three, but it has finally budded for blooming. Hopefully it will recover from my folly.

The scent of these flowers is divine!

It has been interesting to see the difference in growth habits so far. The Owari Satsuma seems very upright, with all the new stems being almost straight up. The Mexican Lime is more bushy, and is covered in small flowers (to the Satsuma's few large flowers). It was the first to start growing, and the explosion of growth was unbelievable.

Here are some photos a month after the shipment was received:


Key Lime flowers


Satsuma with lots of new growth up top


Satsuma flower. A bit like a gardenia in scent.

The Meyer and Trovita faring a little less well. The poor Trovita is down to just six large leaves. Yes, that is a giant sundew attacking them. No, i don't think it will hurt them. ;)

I live in: United States

My zone is: Boston

My favorite forum 1 is Carnivorous Plants.

My favorite forum 2 is Citrus.

First registered on February 16,2003.