Just yesterday my sister came home with a little package that she said was a gift from my former teacher (the same one that gave me my little jade!) and this little, tiny boy was inside! Idk what kind of cactus that is so fell free to tell me if you do! 😊🌵
Considered by some to belong to the Citrus genus, while genetically different enough to grant it its own, Poncirus, by others, the bitter orange is a uniquely interesting large shrub I was ecstatic to find loaded with fruits when wondering through the gorgeous Giardini Pubblici Indro Montanelli in Milan back in October. I still have to write about it in detail on this blog, but I have a passion for raising citrus plants indoor from seed, and with five species (seven plants in total) currently growing in my living room, it’s quickly getting out of control.
This species has some peculiarities which set it well apart from your common citruses though, the most relevant being its hardiness. Native to Northern China and Korea, it is hardy to -15
°C if placed in a sunny, sheltered position on well-draining soil. Being deciduous and performing a great deal of photosynthesis in its young branches are adaptations that help make this feat possible. Interestingly, it is genetically close enough to other citruses to hybridise with them and, more commonly, to be used as a rootstock in grafting to improve cold resistance in more tender species.
The small, yellow fruit is downy like a peach and very fragrant, with a sweet floral scent similar to that of the blossom, but it’s actually extremely bitter and mostly filled with seeds. It can be used to make a marmalade and a dry seasoning powder, but is also an ingredient of Chinese medicine.
The seeds require cold stratification to germinate, so after washing them well I placed them over a layer of moist sand in a sealed container at the bottom of my fridge. I’m curious to see if I will be able to raise this species successfully in my allotment here in Scotland, and it might give me the opportunity to experiment with grafting my other citruses and test their ability to survive a Scottish winter outdoors, obviously with plenty of protection still provided.
so last year i accidentally grew out a little orange tree, it’s soon gonna be a year old and it’s grown so big and pretty, but since autumn came in the leaves started to look a bit sad and yellowish. it’s not dry, just kind of pale? i’m in the UK so i’m thinking it might be because it doesn’t get enough light? it’s already in the sunniest windowsill in the house, so i’m not sure what to do. is there some kind of artificial light i could buy to help it a little? can anyone recommend anything that works?
Another possibility could be soil nutrition; Citrus trees can be fast growers, and fast growing plants tend to demand a fair bit of soil nutrition such as nitrogen as they tend to to deplete it quick in a planter. A lil (AND I MEAN IT WHEN I SAY A LITTLE; less is more with fertilizer doses) 50-50-50 balanced fertilizer liquid or granular might improve its health a little bit. Cold air could be another issue as they’re tropical plants. Hard to 100% diagnose without actual photos of the plant as well as full details on the environment its being grown in for an indoor setting.
does anyone know what the deal is with this leaf on my philodendron? it was there when i bought her. i thought it looks like sunburn but the leaf is otherwise healthy and no other ones are affected! theres also a little hole in it so maybe a bug chewed it? does it look like an issue?
Keep watch that the soil isn’t oversaturated lest its a root health issue, remove the leaf if it doesn’t bounce back and just check if in the future if any leaves develop similar symptoms. Otherwise I’d say it looks fine. Every houseplant occasionally has a few iffy leaves develop here and there, so long as fresh leaves replace said leaves to replace the lost ones.
I’ve been getting progressively sicker with a nasty cold since Saturday. I feel like I’ve had worse but my inability to sleep made it particularly frustrating.. that and a series of random shitty things that kept going wrong. I have trouble letting things go. I really need a good distraction.. aaaaand to clean the rat cage but I have zero energy. I can barely get the dogs outside either and they are pretty upset about it. There’s a lot of things I wanted to do this week that I haven’t been able to 😑
My plants are doing really well though, that makes me happy. My peppermint geranium is making a comeback and at least one of its clippings has grown roots! Is there anything more exciting than new growth? 🧚♀️ There’s probably a metaphor for life in there.
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