Hi back to you Brian. Lee x Nova interests me too but I read somewhere it takes a couple of years before the fruits are good. I'm impatient :)

Can you tell us about your Marumi kumquat and the rootstock it grows on.

Steve

Hey Brian how are you . Isn't it amazing that thanks to nurseries like Phoenix and Greenscape our choices now rival that of our friends down south .

Dev

It is funny. I probably live to far south to grow citrus trees

Steve

Gary, that is a nice list of citrus varieties that you have available for the Canadians to choose from. By chance, are you getting your citrus trees from Four Winds Growers? I remember that last year you said you import them from the U.S.. They just so happen to grow and sell all of the varieties on your pre-order list. :)

Speaking as an internationally certified curmudgeon, I would say, getting one is not the same as growing one. Personally, I would never sell a tree to someone I thought would not be able to grow it successfully... but that is just my business ethic.

I wonder how much shipping it will cost me to ship from the west coast to the east coast for two 3 gallons trees... I am very interested in the sudachi and the leexnova. And the cocktail grapefruit and the santa teresa... oh god... so tempting

Jinny - One of their sources certainly is Fourwinds , last years trees I got from Phoenix had fourwinds tags . They must have another source as well since Fourwinds doesnt carry Giant Key Lime ( even CCPP doesnt sell budwood for it ) .

Phoenix probably does have other sources. I do know though that Four Winds has the Giant Key Lime listed on the availability list at both of their growing grounds and had it for sale before, not sure if it is currently in production though.. :)

https://www.fourwindsgrowers.com/osos/availability.php?site=C&mode=View

Amy - from my experience ordering trees from the east and shipped west it's gonna cost. Being in Vancouver, I don't know what Phoenix charges but the sellers back east charged around $35+ for 1 tree and UPS is pretty much the only option. Of course the more trees you buy, the more economical it'll be. I think about ordering more from Quebec/Ontario but then realise that for the price of shipping I can get 1 or 2 more trees here.

I thought of your trees immediately Brian! Beautiful as always!

Thankyou so much Cory your an amazingly wonderful person :) . My thinking is if they don't believe it can be done then show that it can be done with pics , we can do it up here .

Brian

Thanks Brian. You certainly are the gold standard for Canadian citrus enthusiasts.

My trees are doing well no leaf drop thus far. This year switched the HPS with MH plus the LED.

Harvested a batch of Meyer lemons n made marmalade.

Hi cf03, All of our plants are grafted and the vast majority would be on C35 rootstock. As I understand it, this citrange gives good hardiness and good vigour and fruit to a wide variety of citrus. Cheers, Gary

Hi nulesm, All our plants are grafted most likely on C35 including the 3g. We would do a partial bareroot on a 3g before shipping to save on costs though nothing extreme as we don't want to shock the tree. Cheers, Gary

Hi poncirusguy, The Marumi kumquat will be new to us this year so we're looking forward to getting to know it. It will be on C35 rootstock. There is some more information here: http://www.citrusvariety.ucr.edu/citrus/marumi_3237.html. Cheers, Gary

Thank you cf03 for the information! It confirms my worst fear about the shipping cost: I need another mortgage to afford all the interesting varieties I want!!!

Brian, my trees are doing great in my grow tent but from what I can see in some other threads they don’t grow as fast a yours! How is your shiranui? Mine is doing great and grow so fast that I had to pull him out of my grow tent to slow him down a bit. Lots of leaves but I didn’t have any flower yet. Same thing for my Sugar Belle. Lots of new eaves but no flowers. Oh we really need to start a thread to post all our trees. It’s always a treat to see everyone’s pictures.

Gary, very nice selection! What is the deadline to pre order and when will you ship?

Hey devsense, We love going deeply into cool groups of plants and it is gratifying to find an audience for them. Someone did a blog post a couple years ago on our succulent selection and there was a comment from a gardener in Tucson that we have a much wider selection of succulents at Phoenix Perennials in a rain forest than they have in Arizona in the desert! I love it. Cheers, Gary

Hi jinnylea, We get citrus from up to five different sources. It depends on the year as to where they come from depending on availability but they are all very high quality. Cheers, Gary

Hi johnmerr, The success of our customers is very important to us. We have a citrus expert on staff who spends a lot of time with our customers and we have an info sheet that we also send out. We can't guarantee success in all cases and we can't know the skills and growing environment of everyone who might buy from us but we strive to stock only the healthiest of plants and to be there for advice when we are needed. Cheers, Gary

Hi Amy and cf03, It's hard to estimate shipping costs on oversized plants because shipping is based on weight AND volume and so the size of the tree can really throw off an estimate. I would say that cf03's estimate for a 1g citrus shipped across country is about right. One 1g would probably be about $30-$35, two 1g likely $35-$40, three 1g about $40-$45. In terms of 3g plants I would think that two 3g would likely cost around $40-$60 as long as they are not too tall. We try to be as fair as possible so our formula is to charge the Canada Post rate plus a small amount to cover our boxes and time at a break even level - we do not make money on shipping. I hope that helps, Gary

Oh Dev that marmalade looks soooo delicious yummy wish that I had some of that for my tomorrow morning toast . Funny Dev I never thought of making marmalade with the fruit from my tree's thanks for the great idea . Glad to here that your tree's are doing just fine. It's hard to believe that the daylight will be getting longer again in a few weeks it's so nice seeing others planning for spring already. Dev thankyou so much for your very kind words.

Thankyou Gary for the update , nice to know that all your citrus are grafted .

Brian

Hi Amy, Plants will be shipping in from our suppliers in mid to late May this year so we will be shipping between late May and mid June. There is no deadline. You can order right up until mid May. Earlier is better. In many cases we can increase our numbers if there is demand but in other cases what we have booked is fixed as there are no more available so at some point a number of varieties could sell out. You have some time though. No need to rush into it. Plants normally get booked steadily through the winter and early spring but not in a huge rush. Cheers, Gary

Hi Dev I forgot to ask what is the plant behind those beautiful Canadian grown Meyer Lemons.

Once again Gary thankyou for taking the time to answer thoroughly all our questions.

Brian

Brian - that's lemon verbena , I dry the leaves and use it to make tea either by itself or a blend with dried mint and few drops of lemon oil

Thank you to Gary for stopping by and answering the many questions. I'm glad to heat the trees are on C-35 as I know that's a good rootstock.

Brian - thank you for showing your beautiful tress. It's truly inspiring to see them, especially during the winter. I'll have to try your fertilizing method with the MG.

I'm so excited about the gold nugget, I was able to try some this year and they were so sweet and juicy. I even made my family do a taste test between the GN and Shasta Gold and the nugget won. Also tried Shiranui/Sumo from Australia which got a thumbs down, it had a nice crisp texture but also an acidic tang that I just couldn't get over. So I've crossed that one off my list.

Dev - that marmalade looks wonderful, I never think of making marmalade. Probably because I never have enough ripe ones at the same time :) If my meyer lemons ever ripen, first up will be Johnmerr's pie then lemon curd.

Since Thanksgiving, 14 of the 20 people at the dinner have asked me for the recipe; luckily it is one of the few things for which I actually have a recipe.

Hi cf03 thankyou so much. Don't scratch the Shiranui off the list yet lol I have one and the fruit is so amazingly sweet like orange candy . I've tried gold nugget 's from the store really loved them also that's probably the reason I bought two gold nugget tree's , for me I would give the Shiranui a slight edge for flavor. Shasta's are extremely good also a very interesting and complex sweet flavor here is a pic I took of a Shasta fruit a couple of weeks ago the longer on the tree the better they get .

Brian

Brian - "orange candy" huh, then back on the list :) Maybe Gary will see this discussion and look into sourcing it from Harris or some other wholesaler for 2019. Tango is another mandarin that I'd like to get, I've found the fruits to be unbelievably sweet. Love seeing the pictures of your tree. How long have you had it?

Hi cf03 the Shiranui is seriously good I was amazed. I have a Tango it produces a incredible amount of fruit but the taste is just so so maybe as the tree gets older they will taste a little bit sweeter . Funny the second year crop on the Tango was very good they have never tasted the same since .

Brian

Hi Brian, what soil and fertilizer do you use for your plants? They are spectacular. Great work!

Oh, decisions decisions :) I should listen to Poncirus and only get the varieties that are not available at the supermarket. Or in the case of the Shiranui too expensive.

Hi tropical I use MG all purpose and the tree is in a huge pot . Cf03 not trying to mess things up for you lol . Maybe it just hasn't been hot enough here last summer was very cool.

Brian

Hi tropical I forgot to mention that I use pro mix potting mix . I have many tree's lot's of varieties and normally I get very nice tasting fruit on most but my Tango just seem to be missing the sweetness I love the flavor is there though. . I fertilize heavily during spring and summer months.

Brian

Hey Brian - your Shiranuis looks great .its certainly on my list but I haven't managed to source it yet. Where did u buy it from .

Hello Amy I'm so sorry I missed your posting from above . Glad to hear that your Shiranui is doing great sounds like one healthy tree imagine having to slow it's growth down . Glad to here about your Sugar Belle also you have some mighty nice varieties there . I'm hoping Perry gets more Sugar Belle's in next spring if not the 88- 2 sounds great . My tree's are slowing down now a bit of new growth here and there . Some of my tree's are flowering Meyer , Eureka, Shasta Gold and Bearss lime . My Shiranui looks very healthy it's not currently growing but it has about 8 fruit getting kind of large now . I'm very happy that your setup is working out great . Are there many more varieties that your interested in? I like the idea of a pic thread if you start it I will post pics . So nice talking to you Amy Happy Weekend!!!

Brian

Hi Brian,

you know how I am! I want them all! But since I don’t live in a castle yet (still waiting to win lotomax) I will start with these wish list:

- valentine pummelo (everyone should be impress with my patience here. I tie my hand every night to make sure that I will not order it until 2018 and that is to prove that I am still in control of all my pulsion. Not an easy task because everytime I think about this tree my heart beat faster.)

- xie shan

- cocktail grapefruit. This is an interesting one. It's not a real grapefruit but a mandalo which is pummelo x mandarine. Must taste good right?

- pixie mandarine if I am lucky enought to find.

- santa feminello because of all the beautiful pictures from Suzanne.

- sudachi. From the moment I read Laura description of the fruit, every fishes and sushis I eat must taste better with a drop of sudachi. That’s my dear is what we call the power of persuasion! I don’t even know how it taste but somehow everything seems fade without it!

- gold nugget to have a back up.

- ponkan mandarine. Because it s supposed to be very sweet!

Speaking of the Lotomax, I have won the Ohio lottery every week since it started except 1 week I lost. That was the week I bought a lottery ticket and I was out 1 US $. I cried my self to sleep for years before I got over my losses.

Steve

Does anyone know of other locations that have citrus? I want to compare and see other varieties that may be available.

Hey guys,

phoenix perrenials has a 10% off on gift certificate until tomorrow. I just bought myself a nice little gift for the upcoming season!

Great info Amy thx . Darn I just purchased a Christmas present for myself last week I picked up a USDA 88-2 mandarin . The Pomona limetta is raising my interest . Have you picked up any yet ?

Brian

Yes, I followed your steps and snatch a leexnova and a gold nugget. I am waiting for my next urge to buy something to add the cocktail grapefruit. When the moment will come, I will pull my gift certificate out and voila!!

Very nice catches Amy congratulations. With these two you probably now have the top 5 mandarins out there . Gotta get me one of those certificate's :) lol.

Brian

Brian, is there a palmares of mandarin somewhere? Just out of curiosity? What will be yours?

the gift certificate is a good idea if you plan to add the pomena. And if not, it has no expiration date!

Hello Amy did you mean is there actually a top 5 list for mandarins if that is what you meant I don't think so . I probably should have wrote maybe the most sought after and tasting mandarins which I'm sure your pretty close to owning. My top 5 list for mandarins would be #1 Shiranui #2 Gold Nugget, #3 Pixie SL or Daisy SL both these two I don't have but I heard Pixie and Gold Nugget are very similar # 4 Sugar Belle which I don't have # 5 USDA 88-2 or Xie-Shan . What do you think of this list ? How different would your list be ?

Brian

Wow interesting! Here is my list with some minor differences with yours:

# 1 shiranui

# 2 gold nugget: a favorite on this forum!

# 3 kishu: Brian, I bought a bag of tiny small mandarins at my asian grocery (the size is about a looney or smaller). It wasn’t label as kishu so I am not sure but they were very, very sweet. They really taste like orange life saver. I read about this description before but never thought much about that until I taste it. The description ws very accurate.

# 4 xie shan: winner at the citrus expo held in alabama. Must be really good to win the favor of all those enthusiastic citrus lovers.

# 5 page: never taste it but seems a classic to have. Everyone was raving anout this variety in another forum some years.

Sugar Belle, Pixie, Daisy and Tango are all great varieties but I never taste them and can’t find lot of information on them.

Amy I really like your list . You know I totally forgot the Kishu I have one but I've never had a fruit from it hopefully this year. Funny thing I was going to list Page it's a classic should be somewhere in a top 10 list for sure . Amy my Page fruits are so good your going to love yours . Another classic the Dancy that really started a lot of our new favorites they are so good . It probably would have been a lot easier doing a top 10 . Xie-Shan I have never tried but heard it's really good . Between Shasta and Tango I prefer the Shasta very interesting taste . Maybe as my Tango ages the flavor will improve. Minneola not really a mandarin but very very good highly recommend it .

Brian

You know what is miasing in our collection? The enigmatic ruby tango or mandared or some cross between blood orange/mandarin! I know that they are not available for now so I am just dreaming...

Amy you little enabler the ruby tango would be a great variety very different I just wonder if the flavor would be the same as a Tango ? Scratch the Pomona off my list Evan found that the flavor was very insipid watered down thanks for the warning Evan . This is why I love the citrus forum great info here.

Brian