Follow this link..

The chart says I am in Zone 5A.

In the basement under Metal Halide (1000W)

Jasminum Sambac "Arabian Nights"

Jasminum Sambac "Maid of Orleans"

Jasminum Sambac "Mysore Mulli"

Jasminum Sambac "Belle of India"

Jasminum Sambac "Grand Duke of Tuscany"

Jasminum Sambac "Grand Duke Supreme"

Opuntia cochenillifera (37 Winter blossoms) ( Need another to set fruit)

Piper nigrum

Vanilla planifolia

Vanilla planifolia v. Variegata

Ginger Oficinale

Meiwa Kumquat 5g - Harris Nursery

Meiwa Kumquat 3g - AcornSprings Nursery

Some Sugar Apple seeds I was thinking about planting until I seen this list.

SiliconMage. You'll have to try you hand at uploading some photos. I'd be interested in seeing some of your Jasminum Sambac

What a great and very informative site! Calgary is located in Zone 3a and, yes, fruits and vegetables can grow here but you have to 'help' them as they are putting up with less than ideal growing conditions.

The first Citrus trees that I owned was (were) a Washington Navel Orange and a Dancy mandarin back in the late 80's. They survived several nasty hail storms (which occurs frequently in Calgary during July and August), and a bug infestation and then loss of leaves when I brought them indoors during the winter. Yet, despite all of this, they both produced fruit. Unfortunately, both of them died when the temperature dipped below freezing for several days (never trust a relative to look after your plants during your vacation).

About 12 years ago, I successfully rooted a Meyer and two years later it produced it's first set of lemons. And it's been producing anywhere from 20 to 70 lemons every year since (except in 1999 but I'll get to that later).

I'd like to share some of my citrus growing experience in hopes that others can benefit from my mistakes and successes.

-During the winter months, major leave loss and fruit drop would occur whenever the furnace kicked in. Unfortunately, any attempts I made at raising the humidity with a humidifier or even a pebble tray with water, especially if the outdoor temps were -10 Celsius or lower, would result in condensation and/or ice buildup on my double pane windows. For the past few years, I've been misting the Meyer with filtered tap water before going to bed and it seems to be working. I've had some minor leaf loss and new growth isn't dying off like it would in the past. Also, there's less condensation on my windows.

-I lightly fertilize my lemon tree with a hydroponic fertilizer every three to four weeks when indoors and every two weeks when outdoors. I make sure that the fertilizer PH is 6.0 (PH pen). I don't recommend fertilizing them too often unless they are getting an adequate amount of natural or artificial light (at least 10 to 12 hours/day). By the way, I use the hydroponic fertilizer on all my other indoor plants and they love it compared to the store bought fertilizers I used to use.

-During the summer of 1999, the Meyer got infested with aphids from my pepper plants (I put the Meyer into my vegetable greenhouse that summer as it was colder and wetter than normal). I thought that I was keeping the aphids at bay by spraying them with Safers Soap but little did I know that they buried their eggs beneath the branches of the Meyer! To make matters worse, before I brought the Meyer indoors for the winter, I sprayed it with a product that prevents moisture loss. But by the time December rolled around, not only did almost all the leaves fall off the tree, but the eggs got 'trapped' by the coating of the moisture loss product and huge bumps formed on almost all the tree limbs! And round black rings formed around the base of the remaining lemons! I washed down the tree in the bath tub and sprayed it with Safers soap for several weeks. I also scraped the bumps off the tree and sprayed the exposed bark with spray paint. The tree survived the winter but it didn't produce any fruit the following year and new leaf growth appeared 'mottled'. I had to continue spraying the plant with the Safers product throughout the summer and once again when I brought it indoors for the winter as the aphids were multiplying rapidly. My efforts paid off though as the tree produced 70 small to medium sized lemons during the summer of 2001. But I'm never putting the tree into the greenhouse again.

During the winter months, the Meyer is located at a south facing window. Unfortunately, because of the short winter daylight and several trees in my front yard, it only gets a limited amount of sunlight. Earlier this year, I bought a 400 watt Ceramic Metal Halide lamp (Philips Retro White) and set it on a 12 hour day/night schedule. Other than some leaf and branch burning, as a result of the top leaves growing too close to the lamp, the Meyer is loving the light. I recently moved the Meyer and my new Eureka lemon citrus (more on that tree later) outside into full sunlight and they are doing great. This is the first year that I didn't have to gradually introduce the tree to the great outdoors.

I've had more success pollinating citrus flowers indoors with a camel hair brush than a vinyl based brush. I let the bees do the pollinating during the summer. And for those that are not aware, the fragrance that the citrus flowers produce indoors is too die for!

I recently bought a Eureka Lemon from a great Canadian company called Flora Exotica. The tree arrived in 5 days and was carefully packaged for shipping. The tree was so green and healthy looking and had several lemons on it to boot! I highly recommend Canadians and Americans who want to purchase Citrus and other rare tropical fruit trees to purchase from this site. The guy who runs the business, Perry, is very friendly and full of great advise.

Well that's all I have for now. Sorry for rambling on for so long. I took pics of the Meyer lemon over the years and I'll post them on this website as soon as I convert them from tiff to jpeg. I've also grown pineapples successfully indoors and will post pics of those as well.

Cheers

Bill

I'd need some sort of digital camera first.

I'll be adding to that basement pile this year as well.