Re: Growing native trees in your garden
 

I have an orange and a lemonade lemon in my garden, both fruiting quite well now after three years in the ground... BUT, I also have fruit fly.
Cutting open a fruit and seeing it full of maggots tends to put you off eating any of the fruit, so my two trees are now mainly ornamental and the fruit goes in the bin. :(

Re: Growing native trees in your garden
 

Yes but they do well in a Mediterranean climate - which Perth is supposed to have. PP did mention both as being potentials for her garden. (Sorry don`t mean that to sound grumpy)

Re: Growing native trees in your garden
 

Thats it, you have all been teasting me - I am going to buy a lemon tree:thumbsup:

Re: Growing native trees in your garden
 

I work at a wholesale nursery and our potted on plants don't get sold if when you tip the plant out of the pot you can't see the roots (and we supply a very large amount of SAs plants)! Have you checked you are not over fertilising. Natives often like crap soil (they need different fertilisers to other plants because of this).

Re: Growing native trees in your garden
 

http://www.anbg.gov.au/apu/plants/gerasola.html

Also this one, very closely related to geraniums and common in the local bush here;

http://www.anbg.gov.au/gnp/interns-2...odneyanum.html

Not an orange or lemon but these species are native to Australia none the less;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citrus_australasica
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citrus_australis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citrus_glauca

Lemon trees will grow in most places from my experience including cooler mountain regions of the south east of the country, they don't specifically require a Mediterranean climate, oranges on the other hand are a little less cold tolerant than lemons I'm pretty sure.

Re: Growing native trees in your garden
 

They seem to loose their leaves if they have not had enough water. It can be pretty hard to get even watering when in a pot, especially if it is a terracota pot as they dry out far too quick. You can get spike things that you put on plastic bottles and stick into the potting mix. Not very attractive, but for the height of summer they could prove useful.

Have you re-potted it in that 3 years? If not then I would be moving it to a slightly larger pot and changing the potting mix (get a premium one), some water crystals and slow release fertiliser.
I am growing all my trees in pots and will be re-potting each one every couple of years (infact my lemonade tree needs doing now).
Then mulch on top of the potting mix to stop evaporation as much as you can. :)

Re: Growing native trees in your garden
 

Have you tried to get rid of them? Its a pain but cleaning up all the fruit helps as does having chickens (you can actually have them short term from some companies). I wouldnt suggest having free range chickens - I love mine but they make such a bloody mess of the garden. you can go the extra mile and bag the fruit which takes an afternoon or spray the tree.

Re: Growing native trees in your garden
 

We have a three year old Lemonade tree and have picked 20 to 30 fruits this year it requires copious summer water and organic fertilizer all year round (fruits and flowers the full twelve months ) if you want a tree / shrub that needs no water try the Geraldton Wax( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamelaucium_uncinatum), I would love a Christmas tree but being a mistletoe there hard to grow
http://bioweb.uwlax.edu/bio203/s2009/mortense_jord/

Re: Growing native trees in your garden
 

this forum http://forum.homeone.com.au/viewforu...9a0a94539bb517 is the best place to ask gardening questions. Fu Manchu is THE expert, he is a local and gives the best advice. I'm a keen gardener and thanks to Fu my roses, fruit trees, lawns everything is doing much better. He will answer any questions.

Re: Growing native trees in your garden
 

Don't mention bloody lemon trees. Ours had tons of fruit this year (new rental) and was looking forward to next year. Went in the garden yesterday to find that the hubby had attacked it with pruning shears the day before when I was out - it now resembles a twig with a few leaves. He didn't look it up first he just attacked it. VERY cross - can't even bring myself to look at it now!!

Re: Growing native trees in your garden
 

PP, back to attracting birds - have yo got a bird bath or a bowl for them to drink from? Needs to be above dog height but low enough for you to reach to top up/clean. I have a hanging bird-feeder with a large plantpot saucer on it filled with water - very popular.

Re: Growing native trees in your garden
 

they grow back really quickly though so dont worry