Meyer lemon

This weekend the feed store got all their fruit trees in and while some of them will last a while those that are unusual go quick. They had a nice assortment this year of citrus and even had olive bushes (I almost got one but the lemon tree just cost too much for me to get two). I wanted a Meyer lemon. I used to have some that I started from seed (of course, they would likely not have produced true but I had heard from several people that they would still produce nice lemons) but they all died (my lack of watering enough again).  The feed store had two Meyer lemon trees and they were really nice sized.  I went ahead and splurged and got the smaller one (the other would have never fit in my car).

The Meyer lemon is a native of China where it was a decorative house plant. It is thought to be a cross between a lemon and common orange or mandarin. It is rounder and sweeter than true lemons. Meyer lemons were brought to the United States by an agricultural explorer named Frank Nicholas Meyer who collected plant samples all over the world for the United States Department of Agriculture. In the 1940's Meyer lemons were quite popular in California but most were destroyed when it was found they were symptomless carriers of the Citrus tristeza virus which had killed millions of citrus all over the world. A virus free selection was found in the 1950's. 

My pretty little Meyer lemon tree has lots of buds on it. I can't wait to see if it produces anything this year. It, of course, cannot live outside here especially while it is so cold at night but I put it on the porch during the warmer days and move it back in at night until we can get the greenhouse done.