Congratulations. Citrus certainly do stack up as ornamentals. Nice perfume too.

You grow a wide range of orchids, many that i would not even think of trying.

Lovely growing area.

Arthur, thanks for the kind words. I've been thinking about your comment that orchid folks in the North are the "real" growers. Gotta disagree with you. At least for me, growing in the "guest room" - DH's delusion - is kinda simple: If a plant truly needs Intermediate conditions and can tolerate low humidity & Minnesota summers outside, it'll probably be fine.

Between the central heating and air conditioning, I can keep conditions pretty constant. In contrast, many of your plants are subject to the vagaries of nature, which you can't control, if I've got an accurate picture of your set up.

And yes, the orchid room smells heavenly from the orange blossoms.

Does it seem strange to you that the Calamondin would flower with so little light, when it never had before in the same spot and when it had a fresher CFL?

I'm kinda blown away.

WC8

Just realized - winter temps inside have been warmer this winter. Could that be the deciding factor? Before, they were high 50s F to mid-70s F (15-24C). This year, they've been 60F to 80F (16-26C).

But, I still can't believe it's blooming in this relatively low light.

WC8

Wow, WC, I always wanted to try citrus but thought there would not be enough light to carry them through the winter. One, old CFL? That's truly amazing.

Jane, and almost 6' from the E/SE windows. The more I think about it, the more I wonder if the blooms are because of the slightly higher temps this winter.

What do you think?

DH's sterile lime tree is in the bottom left of the 1st shot, not really under the other old, 45W CFL. It and the orange tree have always done fine over the winter and have started putting out new leaves in the house in early spring (I rotate them slightly every 2-3 days), but the orange has never bloomed till now. Oh, I keep both of them trimmed back so they don't get way too tall for the lights.

WC8

Talking of the lime tree. There is one down the back yard laden with fruit.

Culture...find sunny spot, dig hole, plant tree, apply "citrus food" as per instructions, water as required.

I'm changing the statement to real gardeners live in the frozen north.

Arthur, ah, yes, the lime tree. No fruit because DH grew it from - oops, he just reminded me it's a grapefruit tree that he grew from a seed.

Lucky you - you have a fruit tree outside laden with something other than apples, which is the main tree fruit crop here... and only apples hardy in Zone 4 and farther north.

It'd be nice to take credit for being a real gardener, but I'm gonna disagree w/ you again. Just as our apple trees probably wouldn't grow in y'all's back yards, your lime trees wouldn't grow year round in ours.

For outside gardening, the same as for orchids, we're probably all stuck figuring out what our conditions will support.

You gotta take some credit for the fruits of your labor, so to speak. :)

WC8

I too have a Calomondin orange tree which I purchased as a seedling in 1966 in FL. It has been in a warm and also in a cool greenhouse, together with the orchids, except for two years when, for want of space, I kept it on a sunporch during the winter. No matter the location it grew, flowered, and set fruit. I also have one tree from seed and one from a cutting, and these also grow, flower, and set fruit. I use the fruit for an orange chiffon cream pie, which is my favorite desert.

You are wise to keep it cut back, because these will get quite large, and there is no reason to allow them to grow too large as flowers and fruit are on new growth.

Wilford,

Thanks so much for sharing your years of experience.

I dabbled w/ bonsai way back, and the principles have helped keep the fruit trees manageable. For 8-9 years, the grapefruit tree has been in the same size pot, and the Calimondin has been in the same size for 3+ years.

Good to hear from you. Some of your orchid posts are in my permanent files.

Thanks again, Whitecat8