Lemons in February ?

[Don Phillipson]

Memoirs of the Yalta Conference (Feb. 1945) read at

US President Roosevelt made a martini for Stalin and: "said apologetically that a good martini really should have a twist of lemon.

"At six o'clock the following morning, when I came down to the main entrance hall, I was astonished to find, just outside the door to the anteroom, a huge lemon tree-I counted some 200 pieces of fruit on it-which Stalin had ordered flown in from his native Georgia so the President could serve his martinis with a twist."

What are the chances that a lemon tree bearing

200 ripe fruit could be found in Georgia (or anywhere else in the USSR) in the month of February? Can lemons bear fruit in a hothouse in any month we choose?

[David Ross]

Lemons are everbearing. If the tree will thrive and bear fruit at all, it can have blossoms, tiny green fruit, maturing fruit, and ripe fruit all at the same time. Because of overnight frosts, my dwarf lemon only stops flowering in the late fall and through the winter. Thus, I can pick lemons almost any time of the year, as needed. This is quite unlike such citrus as oranges and kumquats, which have specific seasons for flowering and specific seasons when the fruit ripens.

Additionally, once the fruit is ripe, it will stay fresh for months if you don't pick it. This is true of all citrus, not merely lemons. Thus, I can pick lemons almost any time of the year, as needed. Yesterday, I just picked the last of my kumquats, which ripened five months ago.

Yes, citrus will bear fruit in a large greenhouse. Even if the trees are not oranges, such greenhouses are sometimes called orangeries. Commercial citrus bears best if the flowers are pollinated by bees, but a number of flowers will set fruit even if they are not pollinated at all (e.g., inside an orangery).

My lemon is 53 inches tall. Besides many flowers, flower buds, and little green lemons, it has more than 20 ripe lemons. The tree is a dwarf, but the fruit is not.