Tag: lime tree

Anticipation

Looking forward to something can be better than the event itself. However, I’m looking at my roses which are beginning to flower and producing heaps more buds. It’s amazing how fast they have grown after being pruned back in July. I’m pleased to find that they weren’t blown to smithereens by last night’s wild wind.

Name unknown. We call it ‘big bloomer’. Beyond it, Precious Platinum also has many buds.
Cecile Brunner

The globe artichokes have lots of buds this year; usually there are only two or three. While the blackcurrant flowers were barely noticeable, the developing fruit is more obvious and looks promising. The lime tree, which I feared was dying, is now producing new leaves. My neighbour says it may be wise to remove the flowers to give it a better chance of survival.

Globe artichokes
Blackcurrant
Recovering lime tree

Clematis montana is in full flower, and hierloom green rose ‘Viridiflora’ to the left is covered in buds. The garden will be enjoying the rain which we had been hoping for. The temperature has dropped and snow is falling further south. Felix commandeered Mum’s chair beside the fire last night and again this morning.

A new Westerland rose, kindly given to me to replace the one which died, seems to be happy socialising with other roses, and has several buds. I am planning where to plant it, which requires removing the stump of its predecessor which I had hoped might regenerate, but no such luck. Now there is the new rose to look forward to.

Lost and found

Since I got home, I’ve had to search each morning for the newspaper. I haven’t found Wednesday’s paper yet, even though I donned gardening gloves and had a good rummage in the foliage. I once found a newspaper, six months out of date, stuck in the middle of a rose bush by the gate. As is usual in spring, everything seems to have grown like crazy and each year there’s less and less lawn left on the front berm.

Other plants aren’t doing so well, sadly. The lime tree’s leaves were curled and drooping when I got back after 12 days away. I watered it immediately – perhaps it hadn’t been able to get any rain as it was sheltered under the eaves of the house to protect it from frost. Since then, the leaves have all dropped off, although there are still some flower buds and three small limes. If it fails, it will be the second lime tree I have lost.

The underplanting in the container still looks healthy, but I have I overdone that? Has the alyssum and thyme strangled the lime tree?

A bay tree, also in a container, is looking sick and many leaves are dotted with scale. I’ve sprayed it with Eco-oil, watered and fed it.

Is the pot too small? Should I reduce the size of the tree?

I won’t be picking these leaves to use in cooking. The self-sown bay tree by the front gate, however, has luxuriant growth.

Plants in pots

Sexy Rexy
Precious Pet
Violet Hit

These roses are doing well in pots. The Sexy Rexy was in the garden, but was not thriving. It didn’t take long to recover once it was in a pot. I have a watering schedule: the pots are watered twice a week and fed on alternate weeks (roughly). The liquid plant food smells rich and pungent; the prolific flowers suggest it is doing them good. I’m hoping a Spiced Coffee rose, also rescued from the garden, will do well in its pot. The Violet Hit, which has always been in a pot, was not thriving, so I moved it last summer into a more open position and it is steadily improving, despite the fact that an aquilegia has taken up residence in the pot and will not be budged.

Sweet peas
Poppies
Daisy

A mass of sweet peas is growing in a barrel. They have simply come up by themselves this year. Popping up amongst them are self-sown poppies – including some fluffy ones – and underneath a little daisy is struggling for light.

Yucca and lobelia
Mother of Herbs out of its pot
Violas in pot

The potted yucca is hosting self-sown lobelia. The Mother of Herbs has been removed from its pot as it was taking over the kitchen windowsill. It is now beside the sage barrel and a basil plant has taken its place in the kitchen. Tiny viola pop up around the garden, and these ones are with self-sown poppies in a daffodil pot – with a background of geraniums grown from a cutting given to my mother years ago by the Avon lady.

Lime Tree with companion plants

You can hardly see the pot this lime tree is in; the companion plants of alyssum and silver thyme are thriving – a sign of good soil health, I hope. A previous lime tree died, so I decided on a pot for this one, beside the house for shelter. So far so good – and the lime tree has lots of flowers. As with all the pots, I use food suitable for container plants – either liquid or slow release – so that the soil doesn’t build up toxicity, a tip picked up from a television gardening show.

Sublime

Having a fruitful lemon tree is sublime and the thought of having a fruitful lime tree even more so. It has the special taste important to a margarita and a mojito. Unfortunately, my lime tree is looking decidedly subpar. It was planted in 2019 when the vegetable garden was extended into the lawn. I carefully removed any fruit for the first year to let the roots establish. In subsequent years, it has never had more than six limes and it has remained small.

This year, there were quite a few limes but they began to drop off when quite small. Then the leaves began to turn yellow and to drop. I had fed it as usual, so gave it epsom salts as a boost, but it did not improve. The garden centre people thought it might have been over-watered. That’s possible, as I often tossed a bucket of water on it after cleaning up after the chooks and water from the garden sprinkler does tend to run down into that corner. We have also had a lot of rain.

On Friday, I called in at a very nice garden centre – just to look – and came away with a new lime tree, a large pot (half price) and potting mix. I put stones and bark at the bottom of the pot to ensure good drainage. My thinking is that a pot might prove more successful. I also dug up the old lime tree, made a new hole, filled it with stones for drainage, then potting mix and replanted it just in case it might recover.

Today, I bought some companion plants and put them around the new lime tree in its pot. There’s alyssum, silver thyme and dill. It looks sublime. Fingers crossed.