in a pot, yes. but don't expect to get tons from a potted plant, though the quality is better fresh. there's only a few citrus that will do ok in the ground here- trifoliate orange being one, and some funky tangerine another. the lemons do really well in a cool basement, garage or greenhouse with good light for the winter- they just can't deal with heavy frosts. the kind i have is a meyer's lemon, which is a lemon/tangerine cross. when they bloom in the winter they smell heavenly!! oh, and fruit takes FOREVER to ripen- so just be prepared for that.

Tamelask, since your real name escapes me at this moment, do you mind telling me where you got your trees? Meyers do smell wonderful.

Thank you,
Carla

I have a meyers lemon tree also. The fruit does take forever to get ripe. Mine had fruit at the end of last summer that I just picked last month (but I have picked 3 of them over the last month). The lemons have a different taste to them. They are not sour like regular lemons. I think I got mine from Springhill nursery.

Ginger

I'm no expert, so my impressions on home grown citrus may contradict other gardeners. Most citrus take 12 months or more to ripen. I think the shortest are the Kumquats and Calamondins and grapefruits seem to be the longest at 14-15 months. Lots of information out there talks about improved cold hardiness in certain crosses and newly developed cultivars - yes the trees are hardy but the fruit hanging on the tree isn't, so your tree might survive the winter but you'll rarely get any edible fruit from it. Most of them tend to bloom during the winter and most of the fruit ripens during the same season one year later. There are a few types that bloom and set fruit off and on throughout the year - and those are the ones you want to find even though these rarely produce a bumper crop.

Most of the container grown citrus you will find available are grafted. If they are blooming/fruiting when you buy them, and they are only 2 feet tall - then they tend to not get much bigger. Finding a taller, tree-shaped plant for large containers has been my goal for years and I haven't found any yet. You usually have to travel to the citrus growing regions of the US to even see them and now all citrus are restricted for shipping across state lines so you won't be able to bring it home with you.

I know people in the Raleigh area that have large citrus collections, but they drove down to Florida years ago and purchased large trees which they keep in the ground and build temporary greenhouses over them during the winter. They grow just about everything and always have fruit on hand (with the biggest harvest in the winter). How they heat their many greenhouses is beyond me but they are very dedicated to citrus and probably don't want to do the math to figure out what each lemon is costing them to grow.

To me most of the home grown citrus doesn't have the same look as store bought (lemons aren't always yellow when ripe, oranges often green, etc) and the flavor is equal to or better. The real noticeable difference is the fragrance. I can smell the limes when they ripen on my potted tree, whereas I can't smell store bought limes even when I'm holding them in my hand.

carla- my real name is tammy or tamela, and i got mine years ago as a 'needs tlc' plant at logan's trading co. mine is a standard form, about 3.5' tall. there's a guy in VA beach that i hooked up with this summer to get some other things who has a massive citrus collection, some of it in the ground. if you email me directly, i can give you his email and you can contact him. he's the best resource i know semi-locally, other than asking on the citrus forum. he grafts a bunch of his own stuff, and gave me a tangerine seedling that is supposed to be winter hardy.