My Favorite Plant - Brief Article

Flower & Garden Magazine, March, 2000 by Steven M. Reisert

Recently I took up an interest in gardening and started reading your magazine. Just wanted to take a minute to thank you for such an informative publication and send you a picture of my favorite plant for inclusion in the magazine. As you can see from the picture, my favorite plant is a lime tree that grows in my backyard--at least I thought it was a lime tree.

Some background--a few months ago, I moved to a new home in Jupiter, Florida. Along with my new home came a beautiful citrus tree abundant with small green fruit--I thought I'd never have to buy another lime again. Not only that, but the limes were two to three times larger than any limes at the grocery store!!!

Since I moved into my new home, on several occasions I picked a lime or two for use in cooking or to add a little flavor to the occasional martini. Then, to my horror, almost all the limes on my tree began to discolor. They were no longer bright green but changed to a yellowish-orange. I looked over to my neighbor's yard, which also has the same tree, and his limes were changing colors as well. Call me naive, but I thought there was some kind of bacteria or fungus attacking the lime trees in the area.

When I bumped into my neighbor, I thought it would be a good opportunity to see if he knew what was wrong with our lime trees. I asked him if the lime tree season was over and if that was why our limes were turning yellowish-orange. My neighbor politely said, "Uh, are you referring to the orange trees we have in our yards?"

My face must have turned beet red. Now I knew what was happening to my limes. They weren't limes at all, they were unripe oranges. I guess that explains why they were so large. Come to think of it, they never really tasted like any limes I bought at the market anyway. I guess now you can say my favorite plant is the ORANGE tree in my backyard.

P.S. Does anyone have any lime trees for sale?