Lemon can be grown from seed, usually coming true, and will bear fruit after several years.

Sunkist is a brand name, not a variety, and the lemons they most often label and sell seem to be Lisbon and Eureka.

If you are not the patient type, you might want to start with a small tree. Four Winds is one reliable source, I'm sure there are others.

Here is a link that might be useful: Four Winds Citrus

Thanks morz8 for your valuable info.!!! That's great to know, now that I know that Sunkist grower grows Eureka variety I can narrow down my search. However, Sunkist's Eureka has a very distinct taste/fragrance that I've not yet tasted else where (even within Eureka lemon). What makes their lemon so different?

Thanks again,
mcook

It's a little cool here to successfully grow citrus (I do have a couple that winter indoors) so I'm hardly a Sunkist expert, but from their website -

"The 6,000 growers who cultivate Sunkist citrus make up one of the oldest, best-known agricultural marketing organizations in the world."

I suspect quality control (you don't see inferior fruit because those don't get the label or make it to the store under the Sunkist name) and premium citrus growing conditions with the 6000 orchards being in California and Arizona.

I have a lemon tree that I started from a store bought seed. The tree is now about 5 foot tall and has large thorns but after 5 or so years, still no sign of it bearing any fruit.

This tree was very slow growing and stopped at about 3 feet tall for about 2 years, I purchased a mexican lemon tree when we lived in Texas which was about 4 foot at the time, when I put them both side by side the tree from seed shot up to the same height as the mexican lemon and then they both grew to where they are now. Don't know if trees need friends but it sure helped mine.

I have not been able to find out any info on the mexican lemon, but that is what the tag says, so if anyone has any tips on what to expect please let me know.

Susan

Susan, I wonder if you what you have is a Mexican Lime rather than a lemon. If I'm not mistaken, the word "limon" in Spanish refers to what we in the US call a "lime." Every lemon tree I've seen did have some pretty good thorns, in fact, most citrus has thorns. Some can be vicious, others not. Don't know how long it takes them to start bearing from seed-grown trees, though.

--Ron