Wednesday, February 24, 2021

The Lemon Tree Says Winter Has Peaked

There's a routine here.

Every morning at 7:30, go out, inspect the irrigation, look at the plants, make sure the orchids are getting their "drip feed" watering.  Then look at the pool and decide if it needs to be scooped.

There's always time to come back out later and check.

Rack decides he wants out again about the time I am looking for a mid morning snack, so that's a good time to give things a once over.

Somehow I missed all of this when I was out there. 

I have a couple lemon trees that I am growing from seed in a pot.  I'm not too knowledgeable about them, so I'm accepting that I now have a monster of a tree that is growing in one long spike toward the sky higher than I can reach.

It never really grows that noticeably, so in the time that the Mangoes have put out their inflorescences, the Lemon is demanding notice.

 You see it had paused over what passes for Winter here, two weeks of "cold" a few degrees above freezing.   

Since then it has awakened.

I was standing behind it and watching the dog near the pool.  I didn't realize a Lemon has thorns, but this one does.  Thorns that could probably be used in an Old Time Gramophone once dried and tempered.

Then I saw that the tree is putting out a host of new leaves.

I have yet to get any fruit from the tree but going into Spring this tree is just enjoying life.

It will be a good fruiting year.  The mango tree in the backyard and on the corner have quite a few inflorescences, the hibiscus in the hedges are blooming like mad, and I have little purple ruellia growing in places here and there.

The Hibiscus is the biggest surprise since this is the first plant that the Iguanas attack.  My red variegated one seems to be one that the Iguanas dislike.  I have always had flowers on the plant, where my yellow hibiscus gets stripped bare.

So it won't be this year that I get my first lemon.  There are no flowers yet, but the tree is healthy.  They don't seem to mind being in a pot, so I have another year or three before replanting.  

On the other hand if you need some needles for your olde tymie gramophone, I can get them off my tree!

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