pretty cool!! Thats proof that patience pays off. Next test is the taste. I dont ever comment on the smuggling part to anyone.

Excellent!
No comments from me on the smuggling, either.
I'm just glad you got them through, and now you're enjoying the flowers.

Josh

Good luck with your trees. I hear sour oranges are the most aromatic citrus, used to obtain flavor of orange in food product. I found a site few days ago. It may help you figure out what kind.

I hope that orange was not a hybrid and would come true to type.

BTW, can you sheer the top of your trees down and make them shorter/bushier?

Good luck,
FJ

Here is a link that might be useful: citrus info

Fantastic and what a nice story.

Happy bloom days!!

Mike

wanttogarden, she could shear the top off and turn them into a bush/make them shorter but that would insure that they would NEVER flower or fruit. Citrus need have a certain number of leaf nodes to flower, and only branches "above" that node will flower. So if she keeps pruning it, it will never achieve the required number of nodes.

If she wanted a shorter tree that would flower/fruit, she could take cuttings from mature/flowering wood. Then, if they root, you could have a tree less than a foot tall capable of flowering.

Zecowsay:

Thank you. I did not know about about nodes.

Is this true for grafted trees too? I guess what I am asking is, can I sheer the top of my dwarf grafted trees and keep them small/bushy while they still give flower/fruits?

FJ

Congratulations! I know that feeling of having given birth when watching your "baby" bloom. Your orange is called "Seville Orange". You can google that phrase to read all the details about them. And I am told that the Seville Orange is the most fragrant of all citrus - enjoy them! And I am not one to pass judgment on the seeds because I am passionate enough about my hobby to do the same given the chance. And regarding your question about grafted tree node count - it does not count for grafted trees because the budwood used to graft onto rootstock is from the mature tree and they have already surpassed the required number of nodes in the mother tree that the budwood is ready to flower and bloom. That is why grafted trees bloom in the first year of grafting.
Enjoy your babies!

You are so lucky to have Seville Oranges! I am obsessed with making marmalade and been looking all over for these Seville Oranges. Finally someone sent 6 pounds of them to me from a citrus company in Fresno at a cost of over $24 & shipping. So your babies are worth a lot for marmalade making, etc. I understand these oranges are also used for flavoring in certain Spanish recipes. Good luck with your babies! You must have been a terrific "mommy" for them to have blossoms so quickly!

Ah, Seville oranges. Even the name sounds fragrant.

Thank you all for your help and your comments. I'll definitely be able to apply better techniques in the future, and I appreciate the generosity each of you has shown in answering so many questions on this forum for the benefit of people like me.

And thanks for not turning me in to the authorities. . . . . . . .

malibu_rose, my local OSH carries the Seville Orange tree from Menlo Growers. If you want to grow the tree, you may want to ask your local OSH or a nursery if they can order a tree for you.

Thank you, Ashleysf! Yes, another friend told me that I could order a Seville Orange free from OSH. Now I am thinking of ordering a Blood Orange tree instead because other than marmalade making, I would not want the Seville oranges for anything else. But Blood Orange not only makes a terrific marmalade (I have made them) but I can eat the oranges also. So I might just get the blood orange tree instead.

I totally get your excitement. I have a few citrus trees started from seeds years ago - lemon, key lime, grapefruit, and satsuma orange - some of which are pushing 4 feet tall but none have flowered... yet. I'm sure when they do I'll be gushing on here just like you.

Congrats! Make sure squirrels stay the hell away from them - they will pull every little fruit off they can when they are small. It seems like once they are golf-ball sized squirrels then leave them alone. I have lost entire treefulls of lemons, oranges and grapefruit to the stinkin' squirrels.

Thanks for the reminder, va canuck. Right now that's not an issue (hopefully !!) since the trees are in an upstairs bedroom, huddled around a window. But they'll go out once the weather gets warmer, and some of that snow melts. Right now the snow has been with us since Dec 26th, and has melted and re-frozen so often that it's as hard as a coating of white marble all over our state.

Fantastic!!
For your information, the place where you collected the seeds of those nice oranges trees is the oldest live garden in Europe and is was created on the year 786. Your orange trees are very special!!
Greetings from Andalusia

Thanks for posting your story--very inspirational! I've seen these fruits being sold locally, until yesterday in a local Korean produce store. As I am obsessed with citrus, I grabbed a few an started to plant the seeds. My citrus overwinter in a large, sunny garage and would love eventually adding a couple of large Seville Orange trees to the collection.

Guajar! Greetings to you!
That is an amazing story behind these trees! The oldest garden in Europe....
Now I want to grow one, too.

Josh

Congrats, your perseverance and hard work paid off! And what a great story behind it! I, too, now wanna get a sour orange!

Thanks for the very inspirational story. ( :

-Bo