I had a dwarf meyer lemon for several years. It did okay, but over the winter it would get sadder and sadder until it would finally lose its many of its leaves in spring. If you're from California (like me), you know lemon trees are not supposed to lose their leaves - LOL! Then eventually it would be warm enough to put it outside and, after the shock of the transition, it would green right up and grow lots of leaves. It got several lemons over the years by my pollinating the lovely-smelling flowers with a Q-Tip. Then we moved to Texas for a short time and the little tree loved the heat and humidity so much I didn't have the heart to bring it back with us to CO. :)

So it was not optimal, but it did live and produce some fruit. It just wasn't always pretty. In case you think I learned my lesson, last summer I bought another dwarf citrus (a tangerine) and am trying again...LOL. It's really happy right now when it can be outside.

I think the main factor is to find it as sunny a window as possible for the winter. Oh, and I've never had a problem with any fruit flies.

Let us know what you decide. :)
Trish

Thank you, Trish! Yep, I grew up with oranges, lemons, grapefruits, kumquats, avocados, plums, apricots, peaches, walnuts...ah, California!

Well, I might just give it a try. It really is a sunny window area--just about the whole house is windows. But, when I bring the tomatoes in once the sunny days slow down, they are never truly happy, even in those ridiculously large windows.

Still, I think it could be fun to try.

Thank you and good luck with the tangerine,

Jennifer

I have had great luck with a Meyer for the past 4 years and that is with a so so sunny Bedroom in the winter. I get 6-8 lemons a year. It did get banged up by hail 6 weeks ago but I did a good prune and it is leafing out nicely.

My in-laws have successfully grown one of those citrus trees with small, sour orange-like fruits. It's in a large pot. They take it outside during the summer, and bring it inside during the winter. It has lived for decades and has produced a reasonable amount of fruit most years. They live at 7000'.

I bought a meyer lemon about 10 years ago, and it lived happily in a northwest window or an east window, blossoming in the dead of winter and making the house smell lovely. I think the most I ever got was about 8 lemons. Just in the past 2 years it hasn't been doing as well. I'm starting to think it's not coming back in this winter. But when it did well, it was delightful.

Back in the 70's, when they were "all the rage," I had one of the miniature orange trees! Nothing to eat, but LOTS of wonderful flowers to scent the whole house! It was in a room with huge windows on both the east and west sides, and was in the west window. It grew beautifully, and I never had any problems with it at all. With all the sun you have, Jennifer, I don't think you'd have any problem at all growing one. With a little hand pollination, I think you'd easily get some fruit to eat--and even if you didn't get fruit, there's that heavenly scent! When I was at Paulino's, the lemons they had for sale always seemed to set fruit very easily. Don't remember much on the kumquats.

Skybird

I had a meyer lemon for years in a large pot, moving it indoors during the winter and putting it in front of a south-facing window. It did well, and finely chopping up the leaves for a lemon flavor in food was a hit.

It was outdoors when the mega-hail storm hit, and that killed it.

Thank you, everyone for all the input! I'm going to try one, just not sure what kind yet.

Sorry yours died in the hail, David. I'm probably not going to leave it out on its own just because it is so very dry here. But, it is so easy to forget to bring things inside now that I'm back in school. Maybe I'll just put it outside in the summer between semesters.

I don't think we get that kind of hail, our hail seems to be much tinier, like little peas or sometimes larger peas.

I'm thinking lemon but a little tangerine sounds good too.

Thanks,

Jennifer