In my greenhouse the real stand outs are the Blood Orange and the Navel Orange. It took a few years to get them sized up and fruiting and the first few years of fruit were so-so. Now that they are larger and older the fruit has improved greatly and the flavors are out of this world. I have never eaten a better orange than the Washington Navel. Even though they are pretty common in citrus growing regions the one in my greenhouse has fruit that surpasses anything I can buy in the store. I also enjoy having a Key Lime simply because it has fruit on it almost year round which is handy, same goes for Calamondin. Even though both of these have small fruit, they are very juicy. Kumquats are one of my favorite fruits but for some reason the bushes are picky under my conditions. If you can let them stay on the tree for a long time the flavor gets intense. I have the same problem you had with tangerines - though I haven't gotten rid of mine yet. They are just bug magnets. I worry that removing them will just send the bugs to the other trees.

Well, depends what you like to eat, Maxi. Why don't you try another mandarin? Love them, they're my favorite of all the citrus varieties. A good container choice is Seedless Kishu. And, if you want another mandarin that is later (to extend your harvest), add Gold Nugget. Moro blood oranges are fun to grow, and Cara Cara navel orange is delicious. If you like grapefruits, try either Oroblanco or Melogold. Neither need huge heat units to sweeten up because they're a cross between a grapefruit and a pummelo, and are slightly sweeter than a straight grapefruit. And you don't need to worry about pollinators. Nearly all citrus are parthenocarpic - set fruit without the aid of pollination :-)

Patty S.

Trianglejohn....thanks for the suggestions. I wanted to try some sort of orange, but wasn't sure if they would do well in a pot. I don't usually see them grafted on dwarf stock, but we have very limited availability locally. The Rocky Mountains are not a hot bed of citrus growers! I essentially got the greenhouse originally to overwinter my citrus trees, because like your key limes, I like being able to pick a Meyer lemon whenever I want one. So I'm pretty new to greenhouse gardening, so any other tips on what to try would be great. Do you participate in Any greenhouse forums that I should check out?

Patty...thanks as well to you for the great suggestions. I think I knew some citrus didn't require pollinators, but didn't know it was most types. It's still kind of cool to open the door and smell the amazing blossom scents, and hear the bees buzzing around! There are a few beekeepers around, and I sometimes wonder if they are puzzled by the new citrus note in their honey.

Can either of you recommend any good online sellers of citrus?

Also, any experience with Australian finger limes? They look so interesting!

I may need more pots...........

Years ago I used to complain about trees and plants shipped from the west coast all the way to where I am on the east coast - not blaming the nursery but the distance was just too great. I have changed my tune. I tend to order from One Green World the most and have never had a bad experience. For citrus I usually can find what I want locally or by trading with other greenhouse growers here in NC. It took a long time to build up my collection and citrus can be addictive once you get started.

I have a Finger Lime but it is small and will need to grow a bit before I see fruit. I hear they are tiny at first. So far the tree has been easy to keep happy.

I participate in many online gardening forums but I think GardenWeb is the biggest and best. The best thing would be to find a site based in the Rockies for greenhouse/citrus gardeners.

I use two types of containers for my trees - large black plastic "tree" pots, I think they are 45 gallon. (my local garden center sells them for $9.99!!). It takes 4-5 years for the trees to grow big enough to need that size of pot. Citrus like new soil every other year so for full size trees I make what I call cage pots out of metal hardware cloth and landscape fabric. I simply bend the screen into a ring and line it with landscape fabric. There is no bottom so you have to set it up where you want it since you can't move it. I use zip ties to hold it together that way I can snip them off and open up the cage and replace some or all of the soil. Besides the not-being-able-to-move problem the biggest obstacle is that it take a large amount of media to fill the cage. It all depends on how big you make the ring but I guess some of mine are 55-60 gallons.

Thanks trianglejohn. You must have an amazing citrus grove.