Hi Holly..as for the most fragrant, (citrus foliage) I once grew seedlings from store-bought fruit..The lemons were really something..When I rubbed my finger and thumb against a leaf, I'd smell a hint of lemon. I didn't notice this w/the orange or lime. Toni

If you don't care about fruit, try 'em all. I have had no problems growing any citrus from seed except for satsuma and kumquats which I seem to lose after 4-5 leaves. Lemon and grapefruit seedlings seem to me to grow more vigorously than others, while mexican limes seem to grow the most slowly.

You could try growing a Thai lime/Kaffir lime (Citrus hystrix). The leaves are used in Thai cooking. My tree is outdoors, and so I don't know if it is fragrant as a houseplant, but the leaves smell marvelous when you crush them. Mmmmmm, craving some tom kha gai now...Anyway, you wouldn't really need the fruit with this plant, and the leaves are useful.

In fact, if you want, I have some Kaffir limes from the tree that I am not going to use. Are you interested in the seeds? Got anything to trade? I would love some cranberry cuttings, or some pink or white currant cuttings. I've got other citrus fruit/seeds that are not real common if you'd prefer--limequat, yuzu, Seville, Palestine sweet lime, Bergamot. Or bouquet de fleurs in a few months.

Another one that may be good is chinotto sour orange, bacause the leaves are unusual ( it's also called myrtle-leaf sour orange ) and it is very slow growing. I will have ripe seeds in a few months.

It seems that lots of people grow calamonins indoors too.

Also, though I don't know much about growing citrus in the house, but just make sure that if you do, that you have a very very well-drained medium and that it gets lots of light.

I germinated a couple of citrus seeds just for the he** of it by sticking them in cup of damp peat and keeping it by a window--but remember I live in California. Keep it somewhere warm--I am thinking of getting a seed warming mat for other stuff. I didn't soak them first.

HTH.

I've got a bunch of meyer lemon seedlings and 2 etrog trees growing in my MN basement under lights. I found that, for the lemons and etrogs at least, peeling off the softer outer portion of the seed and planting the inner hard part caused them to gernminate more quickly on a heat mat than the seeds I did not peel.

One day around Christmas I pushed some seeds down into a pot that contained a violet. I have no idea what they are, at the time I had lemons, limes,mandarin oranges and grapfruit in the house. I totaly forgot about them and one day when watering the violets there they were about 2 inch's tall. I was shocked.

I find growing citrus from seed is pretty easy- just pop them into potting soil, water when needed- I agree that lemon and grapefruit are the easiest, but I tried tangerine seeds too (store bought) and they are coming along pretty nicely as well.
I've got all of my seedlings (Meyer Lemon, Red Grapefruit, and two Tangerine seedlings) outside now, and while they're still small, they have responded well to the past four days of our heatwave.

ichthus

I agree with you on kumquats. I lost about 300 seedling before I learned how. They still are pathetic seedling. Mine is 2 years old and my sweetlee tangerines are 1.25 years old.Check out how much larger the sweetlee trees are than the kumquat tree. DONT GROW KUMQUAT TREES FROM SEED. you are wasting your time

Click link to see meiwa kumquat tree slide show of it's first 2 years.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://s1094.photobucket.com/user/wreristhechimney/slideshow/Seed%20grown%20Meiwa%20kumquat%20tree