Hooray for you, Trina! That is a beautiful specimen. It looks to me like it has pink flower buds on the right side of the picture.. It would be awesome if it sets fruit.. Does the tree have any wicked thorns?? This is one lovely citrus that I would like to aquire someday. I have been searching the mail order nurseries here in the states, but, no one carries it yet..Until then I will just have to live vicariously through you.. Ha! Please continue to keep us updated with your new blood lime and share pictures of its progress..

Yeah!!!! Congratulations - it is a beauty! I can't wait till we can get it in the States!!

Trina, you doubled this thread..Here's the link to the other)

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/4197209/blood-lime?n=2

Yes, please post! Neither of my finger lime trees have flowers. I'd love to see!

And has anyone got finger lime fruits ? I have a few plants one of which is big but not even flowers , I wonder has anyone got fruits esp in the colder regions .

How tall is yours? I have one that is about 2 1/2 feet tall and has not blossomed. I emailed Logees, from whom I bought the plant and this was their response"

It sounds like the plants may be receiving too much fertilizer. For a blooming fertilizer, we would generally recommend a 7-9-5. What you want is for that middle number to be the highest because that is what is going to induce the blooming, which will then, eventually produce a fruit for you. We suggest using about ½ teaspoon per gallon of water once every 2 weeks for these plants. Excessive fertilization can create difficulties in culture, so it’s best to err on the lean side.
I have been fertilizing with FP.

No blooms for me either, but mine are still small. Vladimir, I do wonder how much these nurseries know about these particular cultivars...they grow so many different trees...

Laura, I agree.

Vladimir..I have no idea why they dispense bad advice,,The middle number should never higher than the others....They also tell people to water when our plants look visually dry...I have killed a many watering like that, especially in fine mixes...

All one has to do is pull back on the Nitrogen, which means cut back on fertilizing...This lowers the middle number naturally...

So our Australian Native plants don't like to be fertilised too much. Only use about a quarter of what you would use on other citrus and only apply 2-3 times a year. I can't remember exactly what is in native fertilisers here, but I'll have a look when I get home from work :) Apparently Epsom salts help natives to flower, so that might be a good shot. They are a tropical rainforest plant so they need a shaded area with lots of water and don't like the cold too much.

My next tree to hunt down is the Australian Desert Lime :)

mine is around 5ft n I fertilize with usual FP like I do with all citrus trees maybe I will go light with it

Thank you TrinaJulie. You are correct. I have been over feeding mine.

This may be helpful: http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/320272/growing-australian-native-finger-limes.pdf

It says: Growers are using only about 25–30% of the total annual amount of NPK fertiliser applied to other commercial citrus varieties.

This is probably due in part to less demand by the tree because of its naturally smaller leaves and canopy area.

A complete NPK (15:4:11) fertiliser low in phosphorous is currently being used by commercial growers.

Great info Vladimir. Should we not sue FP with those? Is there another fertilizer that would be better for it?

I wonder how we can adapt those fertilizer requirements to the container trees. I guess perhaps just cutting back would be enough, although with the porous mixes we use, I wonder if it is possible to overfertilize...??

I think it is OK to continue using FP.

It is possible to over fertilize because the fertilizer solution is held by
the mix and the roots are thus exposed to the fertilizer. Now, the question is,
what is the appropriate amount of fertilizer to give when we don't know the how
much other container grown citrus require? Or do we?

I think we can take two approaches - I may try the easier of the two...1) (harder ;-)...mix up 1/3 concentration FP for the finger limes, or 2) only fertilize the finger limes once for every three times we fertilize the regular citrus (I will try that). Vladimir, that is where that spreadsheet can come in handy. ;-). I will have to rely on my memory...

I am visiting my family in Los Angeles and the local garden center has some finger lime trees which are fruiting! The limes are tiny. I can't wait for mine to start fruiting.

Chris, ask them what they feed them and how much!

They have timed release type granules but only use water for feeding. No liquid ferts.

Spike opened his flowers to the world! I came home from a particularly stressful day to see this, and it made me so happy!!

Such pretty flowers Trina!

Dev mine set 2 flowers last spring in my grow room and then that was it. The tree has doubled in size over the season though so I look forward to next spring.

Here is a picture of an Australian finger lime with flowers I took today (still visiting family in Los Angeles). These are from a local nursery.

Chris, those flowers look pretty cool! Though they are different to the ones my Dad's tree gets, the flowers on his only have three petals. When it flowers again I'll snap a few pictures :)

So I checked my tree yesterday and it has exploded into bloom!! The weird thing is the flowers have anywhere from 3 to 7 petals on them!! Had to enlist help from my husband to take this picture for you :)

Beatiful Trina!! I hope mine blooms someday - even if not a red lime, it would be great to see. I can't wait to see the fruit setting...please keep us updated with pics!

Trina, that is interesting that each flower has different number of petals. The flowers are very pretty. I look forward to seeing what the fruit will look like.

Cory