I can tell you that I want one very bad! lol. but I'm broke at the moment. I was told by some people at a Thai restaurant that the local Thai temple does sell them (I think they're somewhere west in Wadell). Other than that, The leaves are awesome, they're used to spice up thai food and they smell/taste something like lemongrass. I absolutely love it in stir fries.(you slice the leaves into long thin slivers) The leaves are double lobed. Baker nursery has them but I'm too broke to get them even from there. They make a fruit that looks like a very ugly lemon with a rough rind. The rind from the fruit I believe is also being used in Thai cooking. I can also tell you that some people have a cow if you refer to it as "Kaffir" lime because that's supposed to be an insulting term in some countries. Personally I don't give a rip about that. In my country they have a medicinal herb that have nasty names, and I don't know who and why they were named that way, but that's the popular name for it, so if you want people to know what you're talking about, you don't use the PC term or the latin name, but the vulgar term, because that's just how they know it. As far as I know it does well in the valley just like most citrus. Slow grower, and it does better if it gets a little help with increased humidity during the hot/dry season. I believe it will come true from seed, but I have not found any of the fruit in the valley to get seeds from. I'm sure someone has them, but they're not sharing (Mommyyy... they're not sharing!!!) I'm fairly sure it can also be propagated pretty much like any other citrus by grafting or budding onto another rootstock.

Like animals, trees grown from seed must pass through several phases of development before they become sexually mature and capable of producing reproductive parts (blooms/ seeds/ fruit). The plant phases of seed - seedling - juvenile - sexually mature are roughly mirrored in human developmental stages of embryonic - infantile - juvenile - adult/ sexually mature. A freshly sprouted seedling is no more capable of producing reproductive parts (blooms/ seeds/ fruit) than an infant. Too, a plant's aging process is different than an animal's. Where animals age chronologically, plants age ontogenetically. Ontogenetic aging can be thought of in terms of how many cell divisions have occurred to move the plant to its current phase of development. One might reason that the most recent new growth would be the youngest part of the plant, but ontogenetically, it is the the oldest part of the plant because it has taken many more cell divisions to produce the newest parts. Ontogenetically, the youngest part of a tree grown from seed will always be the root to shoot transition area at the base of the trunk, no matter how old the tree is chronologically. Pruning a tree back hard can easily remove all existing mature growth and return it to a juvenile phase that would require a considerable amount of new growth before the wood again becomes mature. All factors that influence growth rate have an impact on how long (chronologically) it takes a plant to become sexually mature, so thinking that a change in nutrition alone will cause a plant to bloom is misguided. The fastest seedlings to mature within any given species will depend on how proficient Mother Nature or the plant's grower is at providing ideal cultural conditions. Ideal cultural conditions = most rapid growth rate and shortest period of time to reach maturity; this, simply because ideal conditions are most conducive to cell divisions and therefore a fruitful tree at a younger chronological age. It should be noted that applying nutrients or other products in willy nilly fashion with no knowledge of whether or not there is an actual deficiency of those nutrients or no good reason to apply them is highly likely to be limiting in terms of both growth and rate of maturation. Whenever we discuss what is or isn't an appropriate part of the methodology we use to make certain our plants get all the nutrients essential to growth and good health, we would probably first want to be sure our objectives are on target. It's difficult to argue with the idea that our focus in supplying supplemental nutrition to our plants should be on ensuring all the nutrients plants normally assimilate from the soil are A) IN the soil and available for uptake at all times, B) in the soil in a favorable ratio - that is to say in a ratio that mimics the ratio at which the plant actually uses the nutrient, C) at a concentration high enough to ensure no nutritional deficiencies, yet still low enough to ensure the plant's ability to take up water efficiently, and the nutrients dissolved in that water won't be impeded (by a high concentration of solubles in the soil solution). The part in bold is where growers often run afoul of sound husbandry. By adding unnecessary nutrients we A) skew the ratio of nutrients, each to the others, such that an excess of one nutrient causes a deficiency of one or more other nutrients, and B) make it more difficult for the plant to assimilate water and nutrients. So, for plants in containers, best results can be had by choosing 1 fertilizer with an appropriate nutrient ratio and all the nutrients essential to normal growth. Forget the snake oil products and claims made on product packaging by sellers whose only goal is separating you from your money. For plants in the landscape, a soil test is ESSENTIAL for any grower aiming at providing the best cultural conditions possible. "A little extra" is almost always going to be limiting rather than beneficial; otherwise, it wouldn't be "extra". Al

Alright I had to get in on this. I live in North Houston, Kingwood area with a 9a climate, grow mangos, tamarinds, kumquats, N33E oranges, purple and banana passionfruits, key limes, calomandins, jackfruit, dragon fruit, and various others but those are my most proud plants. Let me start with this, in this area I can go and take pictures tomorrow of lemon trees growing wild in Kingwood and New Caney, then in Crosby I know of a blood orange growing wild in the woods. If you update your information you'll quickly find out that meyers lemons, Persian and Mexican limes, kumquats,calmansi/calomandin, and sour oranges are the most cold hardy. Don't water any tropical fruit plant during winter if you're in a 9a and above, even 9b is kinda skeptical. Wait until temperatures don't dip below 60 to water them. The hotter it gets, the more you water, BUT DON'T FLOOD. I do not even use fertilizers, i simply prepare a good humus, compost, sandy, and peat moss soil... All natural for my babies, haha. After 2 years take the top 6 inches off and replace it. As you water, these nutrients will reach the bottom. My key lime fruited in its' first year. During winter take them in if you're in a 9b and above. Now for the burn comment, no. We're talking about tropicals here, as long as you keep the soil moist, not soggy, you'll keep a "tropical" climate for the roots and not a desert one. Trust me, I know all too well about our "sonic cup melting" summers haha. Another thing, as long as your plant has thick leaves usually, not always, the general rule of thumb is it can handle a sun burn. Good luck to y'all and good planting.

Thanks to everyone who posted. Wow I didn't know there were so many different type of lime. I think I am going to go for the Bearss Seedless Lime (Tahiti/Persian) tree. So What is the difference between dwarfed and non-dwarfed plants? I figured I wanted dwarf since it implies small. From reading everyone's comments, I sense a debate that it matters or doesn't matter if I get a dwarf plant. Of course, my goal is to not have it grow too big, since this will be indoors during the winter and will remain in a pot. Sunwise: I have a balcony facing North (sadly all my windows face North). So I am planning to keep the tree on my balcony during the summer and during the winter bring it in. Since I have free heating (Boston winters are awful), my apt is usually at 75 degrees F.