Ruth Robertson: Citrus in the Northstate garden - Chico
( If you are reading this anywhere but my blog, you can find the original post here. )
Ruth Roberston was born in Orange, California. She is since lived in many places around the world, but for Ruth home is where the oranges grow. And the lemons, limes, mandarins, grapefruit and kumquat. While Ruth and her husband Jeff enjoy growing many kinds of edible plants in their small Chico garden, it is the many citrus varieties that enjoy pride of place.
Besides being an enthusiastic home-gardener, Ruth is also the Office Manager for Lifescapes, A Landscape Company in Chico, and Jeff is an educator. It was in the Lifescapes offices that I first started talking to Ruth about her citrus trees. Ruth and Jeff returned to California and settled in Chico in the early 1990s after living in Australia and South America for work. Their first Chico address was on Citrus Avenue. When they moved to their current house in 1991, Ruth began planting what she now half-jokingly calls her very own Citrus Lane – referring to the side of her garden dedicated to growing citrus.
On the day I visited her garden, Ruth mixed me a glass of homemade iced lemonade to sip as we walked. The lemonade had that very particular ‘Meyer’ lemon fragrance, which always makes my eyes close and my mouth water. Lemonade in hand, we started at one end of the lane where Ruth has a ‘Bearss’ lime that is hedged into a box shape (taller than me) against the house. Continuing from there is the dwarf grapefruit on one side of the walk, and the satsuma mandarin orange on the other. Just past those, the path is dominated by the iconic citrus-tree globe shape of a ‘Robertson’ Navel orange tree, which is the dwarf form of the Washington Navel. Past that is the ‘Meyer’ lemon – a big bushy tree, more squat in stature than the orange. “That poor lemon lived in a box on my patio for 12 years,” admits Ruth. “he’s been in the ground for 4 years and he is much happier.” The only potted citrus in Ruth’s collection is a shoulder-height kumquat tree just outside her kitchen door. Even in late spring it is still decorated with the cheerful, tangy little orange fruits.
“The fun of growing citrus is being able to share it,” says Ruth with a smile. “It’s fun to share with neighbors and to store or freeze the juice for ourselves, but - oranges especially - are a symbol of California, aren’t they? When I first planted these trees, I dreamt about being able to send boxes of fresh fruit to people for Christmas.” While not all the fruits are ripe by Christmas each year, most of the fruit is perfect by Valentine’s Day and so Ruth is able to send off care packages of home-grown citrus to friends and family around the country sometime between Christmas and Valentine’s each year. While citrus is famous for its ability to remain ripe on the tree for long periods of time without going bad, Ruth and Jeff juice a lot of the lemons that they cannot use right away and freeze the juice for use throughout the year.
Ruth is diligent in her care of her citrus collection. She is a regular listener to Garden Compass and has learned a great deal about caring for and growing citrus from that program as well as from the Sunset recommendations for citrus care. She has also – of course – learned as she has gone along in her own garden and its conditions.
“You can see that the first plants I put in were planted at ground level, and then I learned the benefits of planting the trees in a raised mound to improve drainage,” she points out. “I fertilize very consistently in March, June and September with Dr. Earth’s Citrus/Avocado fertilizer. I water deeply on a regular basis, and I spray with a horticultural oil as needed to control scale infestations. Finally, I top-dress with compost beneath the trees once or twice a year. ” As Ruth emphasizes, good feeding, watering and hygiene will keep most pests or diseases under control.
For Ruth and Jeff – who grew up in citrus-growing climates, the bounty of oranges, lemons and limes brings back happy childhood memories: both Jeff’s and Ruth’s mothers made hand-squeezed lemonade for them as kids. The “Juice-King” citrus juicer that Ruth uses for her lemonade was her mother’s juicer before it became hers. To walk around Ruth’s garden – the citrus trees all beginning their heady bloom – and smell the “scent of heaven” – is to feel lucky indeed. And want to have memories like these from your own garden.
The Citrus genus is native to the tropical and sub-tropical regions of Asia. Most citrus species have glossy evergreen leaves, grow into small shrubs or small to large trees, and many of them have large thorns. Citrus is said to have been introduced into what is now the state of California in 1769, with the first Catholic mission’s establishment in the vicinity of San Diego. It is on record that some of the first citrus in Northern California were three sweet-orange seedlings planted in Oroville in 1856 by Judge Joseph Lewis.
Many of the sweet citrus varieties are grown by grafting them onto hardier and more disease-resistant sour orange rootstock. This is why when a tree is left untended for a long period of time, it will often begin to produce growth and eventually fruit from the rootstock. This explains the sour, seed-filled oranges that no-one will eat littering sidewalks in late winter in our region. It is the duration of heat to which citrus is exposed that produces good sugar content in the fruits. While some citrus is too tender to take the occasional hard frosts of the milder portions of the Northstate, the following dwarf varieties do exceptionally well here and fit into almost any sized garden: (Zones 8–9, 14–17; 5 and 10 feet tall): ‘Bearss’ lime (seedless); ‘Eureka’ lemon, with true lemon-flavored fruits; late-ripening ‘Lane Late’ navel orange; or prolific ‘Owari’ satsuma mandarin.
Citrus has long been associated with religious ritual in both the Christian and Muslim traditions. This together with the intense health benefits of citrus, has endowed the various citrus fruits with a sense of both sacredness and luxury in most cultures. In my parents’ generation as well as my own, our family’s Christmas stockings were not complete without an orange at the very bottom of the stocking- along with a silver dollar – as double symbols of prosperity and health for the coming year.
Most local nurseries carry a good selection of citrus that will do well in our region, simply ask them about what would work for your garden.