Thursday, 20 August 2009

Calamondin.

Not a very native or English plant - but it does have a long history of cultivation in England as orangeries were built and citrus ( and other exotic species ) were grown as a symbol of prestige. And lets not forget who likes marmalade the most. They are sold at most of the local nurseries with fruit on them and are very pretty little things. I bought this one cause it looked cute 3 years ago. They aren't locally grown stock either - but are grafts from dutch suppliers.

Quite hard to grow as well. The cold winter here can really set them back a long way - definitely a conservatory plant. They feed heavily during the summer so it gets full strength citrus fertiliser once a week.

The poor thing really didn't like the cold much - as u can tell from the color.

I took a bit of a risk and repotted it while it was dormant and in poor shape. Its in an Akadama and bark mix. It seems very comfortable in this soil and once the roots had made themselves at home it has gone a lovely deep green again and put out a lot of new growth.

As with most plants - it has taken many months to get comfortable in the new pot. Id estimate 6 months before it became really vigorous.

They are fantastic in a Gin & Tonic - well worth cultivating.





1 comment:

lapetitepipistrelle said...

AH, may I just agree that the calamondin are indeed superb, and superbly fragrant, in a gin and tonic—they gave such a beautiful lift to the oily herbaceousness of the Tanqueray Ten!!

Hic!

::giggle::