# The Amateur's Greenhouse and Conservatory/Chapter 14

CHAPTER XIV.
THE ORANGE, LEMON, AND LIME.
It is a favourite and commendable pastime to raise orange and lemon trees from seeds; and lady gardeners acquire considerable expertness in it; although it is a most rare event for them to meet with the encouragement they deserve and look for in the production of fruit by their seedling trees. The question is often asked of horticultural advisers if the trees should be grafted to render them fruitful, and it is but proper we should anticipate the question here. Any member of the citrus family, whether citron, shaddock, orange, lemon, or lime, may be raised from seeds with the greatest ease, and every seedling plant will become fruitful when of a proper age to produce fruit, provided it has the advantage of proper management. As a matter of course, a large proportion of the pretty little seedlings we meet with in ladies’ plant houses and window gardens are not properly managed, and are not likely to live to a fruit producing age. Having had many opportunities of observing the process of this particular phase of orange culture, we must confess that it is to us a matter of surprise that the seeds germinate and the plants live for some years, for as a rule, all the conditions appear to be against them. They are generally potted in black mud, low down in the pots, as if mud were a scarce article; they are watered and ventilated by accident rather than by system, and their tenacity of life affords a delightful proof of the accommodating spirit of the citrus tribe, which have this good quality at least, that they love life too well to be easily pushed out of it. We repeat that every seedling citrus will produce fruit some day if you only wait long enough and manage the plants properly. But then, it will be asked, for what purpose are they grafted? There are two purposes secured by grafting. The process hastens fruit production, and it ensures fruit of the same ​quality as that of the tree from which the graft was taken, provided of course that the routine of cultivation is what it ought to be. In all cases of grafting the object is chiefly to ensure that the fruit shall be of good quality, but as the process promotes early fruitfulness, there are two good reasons in favour of it.
There is not a tree or shrub in the garden more worthy of the care required for its perfect development than is the orange. Its fragrant flowers produced in profusion during winter and spring amply repay the care bestowed upon it, but the fruit that follows makes a still further return—a sort of cent, per cent, upon the outlay, whether of money, skill or patience, or of all these requisites combined.
All the citrus tribe are shade-loving plants and must therefore be protected from the full glare of the sunlight in high summer, but throughout the winter they should have all the daylight that can be secured for them. To shut them up in dark houses is a mistake; and it is one of the wonders of modern horticulture that until quite recently orange trees were shut up in dark houses in all great establishments, and were so much injured in consequence that they might as well have been shut up altogether and forgotten for ever. Another peculiarity of the family is that it will not endure extremes of heat or cold, and hence, if orange trees are allowed to freeze in winter and roast in summer, they become, if they are not killed, unhealthy and unproductive, and more plague than profit to keep them. The shaddock and the lime are the hardiest of the family and may be grown with the aid of a glass wall and without artificial heat in the most favoured districts of the south of England and the Isle of Wight. As a rule the lowest temperature that orange trees should be subjected to in winter is 45°, but the average winter temperature should be 50° at least, but in summer a good greenhouse temperature is quite sufficient.
The Orange and the Lemon have higher claims on the English amateur than any others of the family. To do them perfect justice they should be planted out and never be pruned except to keep them somewhat shapely and within bounds. When enjoying fair root room in a wide border with plenty of moisture above and below, they are proof against all pests and all diseases, and it is a question of temperature solely whether they produce their proper quantity of flowers and ​fruit. But there are many who must grow them in pots or tubs, and our advice on this part of the subject is that the management should be characterised by liberality for potted orange trees are usually ghostly things, the victims of some sort of starvation.
The compost required for potting purposes is one consisting of four parts of rich turfy loam to one part each of thoroughly decayed manure, leaf mould, turfy peat, and sharp sand. The siftings of the sweepings of a gravel walk are preferable to sand if clean, but if containing many fragments of dead twigs may prove injurious by promoting growth of fungus on the roots of the orange trees. The drainage should be perfect, and the soil should be well rammed in to render it firm about the roots. Empty flower pots or pans may be advantageously employed to assist the drainage of large pots and tubs, for if the surplus water does not readily escape, the trees will soon become unhealthy. The potting should be finished with a layer of fat manure on the surface.
Regular and plentiful watering is a matter of the greatest importance. It is not sufficient to give so much water at such and such a time, but the cultivator must ensure that the whole body of the soil is moistened. If a tree that has long stood in the same tub appears to be languishing it may be desirable to probe the soil with a crowbar to ascertain if it is moist within, for it is likely enough that the water all runs away and leaves the tree, like Tantalus, dying of thirst in the midst of plenty. If it be found that the interior of the ball is dry, several holes should be bored in it with the iron bar and several copious waterings should be given, and as soon as the ball is well wetted, weak manure water should be supplied for the remainder of the season, and then the plant should be retubbed and as much as possible of the old soil removed from the roots in the operation.
The best boxes for orange trees are those made of slate with movable sides as in the subjoined figures. The rapid decay of wood and its tendency to produce fungus are serious objections to its use. The slate boxes are not only imperishable but incapable of producing fungus. However, boxes of wood made to the same pattern may be preserved in sound condition for many years by the use of paint without and pitch within, and the removal of the sides (a) is easily effected by merely lifting the side bars which brace them together.
It is remarked above that to do complete justice to the orange and the lemon they must be planted out in a good border in a well managed conservatory. We are tempted to add that to do perfect justice to them they should be grown in houses devoted to them alone, and we may as well add further that an amateur desirous of a special and very choice hobby in the way of plant growing, could hardly find a more attractive subject than the orange when provided with a proper house and cultivated with earnestness. As a winter garden, a well managed orange-house would be quite unique, and the very fact that it would have to be kept cool and airy all the summer would render it an agreeable place of resort even then, when covered gardens are least cared about. For general purposes the common orange is the best for the amateur cultivator, but in an orange-house we should of course require a collection of varieties, and the St. Michael’s and Tangerine would probably be most prized amongst them.
All the insect plagues that ever were known appear to have a liking for the orange. The black deposit we frequently find on the leaves is a sure sign that thrips or scale have secured a lodgment. To get rid of this sooty pollution syringe the trees well and then wipe the leaves on both sides with a dry sponge, which must be frequently washed and squeezed dry as the work proceeds. It is a tedious business, but it must be done. If scale and meally bug obtain a decided lodgment it will be necessary to sponge the trees with warm strong soapsuds. If green fly appears smoking must be resorted to. While, however, you are removing the vermin, you must promote the health of the trees by good management, for in almost every case the appearance of any insects upon them may be ​regarded as evidence that they are starving. Trees in pots and tubs are always liable to attack, but trees planted out rarely want any doctoring if they are but fairly treated as to moisture, temperature and light.
ARALIA VEITCHII.