The life of lemons
My lemon tree has been overflowing with flowers lately, filling my terrace with a pleasantly tart and pungent odor. I had no idea how lemons grew until getting my tree a few months ago, so thought I’d share, photographing lemon development in three stages. All photos are from today. First, the flowers — older ones whose stamens will form lemons on the left, and a new blossom on the right. Open blossoms only stay this beautiful white for about a day or two:
Then the “baby” lemons about two weeks after flowering — you can tell they were stamens not too long ago:
And finally, lemons that have been growing for several months now:
ShareThis
October 27th, 2008 at 03:29
Too bad you can’t pick your lemons early while they’re still limes :D
We have an orange tree in our front yard, and the tiny new oranges are surprisingly hard, like golf balls. The blossoms smell wonderful. Our poor orange tree lives a sort of stressful life, because there is a pine tree next to it that shades it a bit too much (and there’s something about the pine that inhibits the orange tree’s growth — sap, maybe?). But every year we get enough oranges to make a quart or two of juice.
October 27th, 2008 at 17:04
Thank you! For a lemon-lover I’m surprisingly ignorant on the life cycle of the lemon tree. I wonder if they’d thrive in Bangkok. Lemons are scarce and expensive here, although limes are a dime a dozen.
October 28th, 2008 at 19:01
At least your tree has blossoms! I’m in SoCal and have a Eureka lemon planted in the yard a few years ago that refuses to bear fruit. You must be giving off wonderfully positive energy!!