Gardening questions

Question for all your Oregon gardners...

Do citrus trees grow and produce fruit in Oregon? is it too cold?

I am spoiled living in Florida and Calif walking outside and picking fresh meyer lemons, limes and pineapples. Also I have always had a Pulmeria tree would they bloom there?

are there any good gardening book for the area that anyone recommends?

I cant find any info regarding this..so i thought I would ask some actual experts....YOU!

Gardening questions

I see fruit trees all over town :)

But haven%26#39;t seen citrus..but apples and pears .

Taylors Master Gardening books are the Best. I have the huge encyclopedia ...

Go to Powells, they have a PNW book section..there are plenty of books on gardening here because it is an interest of mine too ( aspirations of becoming a Master Gardener)..I do know that lavender grows here like weeds and geraniums will survive the winters.

You will like gardening here :)

Gardening questions

www.powells.com

meanwhile I will look at mine and see what focuses on the PNW better :)

We moved from oreg to Redding CA for 5 years. we had three lemon trees in our backyard which gavve us more than we needed but one winter one of the froze and dies, knocked the others back.

Then we moved back to Oregk 30 years ago, My wife a year and more ago decided we should get a lemon tree in pot which was already set with a few lemons and a few blossoms. we got maybe 2 or 3 usable lemons by fall.

we tried to move it in and out but must have missed a night or two. It really froze bakc, but growing again this summmer with no blossoms, but good foiage.

Consider blueberries or grapes

LOL !!!!! guess i will look into blueberries and grapes! (after my citrus trees freeze!)

Blueberries due great, at least here on the coast. Grapes, I had one and it grew real good just never fruited well. I have seen some vines do OK. Farther inland grapes do great, in fact Oregon is getting a couple of very nice wine regions.

As for the citrus, I have seen several of the nurseries selling some of these dwarf lime and lemon trees that can be put into pots so they can be moved into the garage easily if it gets to freezing levels. I don%26#39;t know if there is other types available. I did have one customer with a lemon he had in a cedar pot on wheels and it always was loaded with lemons. Pineapples I think you%26#39;re not going to have any luck.

Now, Plumerias I have experience with. Their my wifes favorite flower. We have tried to grow several. We keep them inside because even with mild winters it%26#39;s way too cold for them. Light is also an issue being much farther North than the tropics Winter light is short and the plumerias will go dorment in winter. We have not been able to get one to bloom yet even the dwarf I bought from Florida. We have lost two to stem rot also but I think one was bad to begin with. (One of the bagged ones you get in Hawaii) I have yet to find two websites that agree on a soil mix for them. I have a customer who has one he was given and has it in a commercial heated greenhouse with his orchids and his doesn%26#39;t look much different than ours.

I don%26#39;t know where you%26#39;re planning on going to but all my experience is here on the coast and if you are going somewhere inland it%26#39;s totally different. Hope this helps.

Whew - am I ever relieved. I bequeathed my beloved limequat to a friend before leaving northern CA for Oregon and if you had said that citrus would grow here I would have had a fit!

We bought a place with a huge yard that is largely unlandscaped and it is interesting to watch the plants the previous owener had planted as they die. I cannot for the life of me figure out what is wrong, except we have nasty hard clay soil. The lavendar is doing fine. I planted a few veggies and so far they seem fine.

So here is my big question: do the ';city pots'; - the huge planters of tidal wave petunias - winter over? I have two and would really like to keep them going for next year so if there is a trick please share it!

Thanks, will look for those books too....all I have is Sunset Western Gardening, the 1970 edition!

The petunias in our neighborhood, in the huge pots, are taken out in late fall and replaced..they come back in the spring. On my terrace, they are sheltered so they might last longer..

What are they replaced with, or do you mean the entire pots disappear for the winter? So if I mulch them and place them in a sheltered location I might stand a chance?

Replaced, I think with pansies, then just greenery ..we have huge hanging baskets on all the corners where I live, they always have flowers in them, all year round but the petunias go with the frost ..

Geraniums definitely live if they are sheltered.

Off to the beach now :)

I am the LAST person you want any gardening advice from, lol, but I can share my experiences anyway. I don%26#39;t touch plants, otherwise they die. My DH and kids refer to my gardening attempts as my ';harvest of death';:) BUT...the people we bought our home from were amazing with the landscape/plants.

The pansies come back each year...and I am sure that is because I don%26#39;t do anything with them. The geraniums have all come back as well, except one, but I think the ice storm did that in. I do not take anything inside in the winter.

I did buy a blueberry plant from the Lake Oswego Farmers Market this year and it had a bumper crop of fruit. The dog sure enjoyed it all, grrr!

I have seen the Meyer Lemons at both Al%26#39;s Garden Center as well as Dennis 7 Dees. I have no idea how to keep those alive, so I just admire from afar.