I am new to the forum and for a couple of years proud owner of a grapefruit I started from a ruby red seed. The plant has since died, but we have never forgotten the pretty, white, intoxicating blossoms it produced. Please tell me, which of your container grown citrus do you think has the most fragrant blossoms? Thanks much,
Anne

My Sanguinelli blood orange has almost literally the sweetest smelling citrus blossom. Of cours, it smells like orange citrus blossoms but this one is caramelized! It has caramel like sweetness in its aroma.

Joe, have you ever smelled bergamot orange---it must be pretty good since they use it in perfumes.

Yes, just a little bit disappointing. The smell is similar to that of Earl Grey Tea.

But that was not a fair sample for bergamot. It had few flowers, and variegated type, not the regular one.

Anyway, during mid-spring, it is hard to go out to smell the individual citruses for better comparison as my yard would be loaded with bees during warm days. but night time are like heavenly but could not see the labels.

for sure, according to my nose, the smell of lemon flowers, although are very good, would be among the lowest ranks, with the blood oranges on the top. Middle range would be the grapefruits and pummelos. I'll try to do a better comparison next time.

I have to agree with Joe on the lemon smell.. After smelling my Blood Orange, Grapefruit and Meiwa Kumquat I was very disapointed when my Meyer bloomed (is blooming) I thought the smell would fill the house as the thing is covered with blooms.. but you have to get super close and then there is just a faint smell..
Of the few I've smelled I'd have to say the Bloom sweet grapefruit was strongest but it was loaded with blooms.. Maybe if the Blood Orange had been as loaded with blooms it would have been stronger.. the smells were equally sweet to me though..
just my half cent opinion.. not worth much more than that as I haven't gotten to smell many blooms yet..

Gina *BabyBlue*

I love fragrant plants, --Ginger, gardenia, rose, honeysuckle, and jasmine vine are the best in my yard now, but I am looking forward to when citrus can fill my yard with their scent!

Skeet

Just to add to or confuse even more, one thing about plants
that emit a fragrance upon bloom is that there are times of
the day that they will be more fragrant than other times of
the day and the fragrances can change in the scent as well.
Sometimes we can get the scent from the tree mixed up
with the fragrance of the flowers. Go by a Lemon Grove
not in bloom right before sunset and early morning when
the sun has just started to illuminate the trees sometime,
close your eyes and tell us what you smell? Go by the
same Lemon Grove while in bloom and do the same thing.
What you are sensing is not playing tricks on you, what
you are smelling and their potency of those fragrances
will be different. Then it comes down to which of those
fragrances do you prefer?

Who says the fragrance for perfumes of the Bergamot
were derived to better match the scent of the flowers?
Take a few leaves off the tree that have been exposed
to morning or late in the day sunlight, crush them in
your hands, rub your fingers together and then tell us
what you smell? Now, you will know the oil scent given
off by the tree naturally and you may even prefer that
scent over the fragrance given off by the tree when in
bloom.

Just for the heck of it, open up a bottle of Lemoncella
and take a whiff of that liquid. Now go out and smell
an Italian Lemon in bloom and the same Lemon not
in bloom, do the crush test. Which of those fragrances
better coincides with the odor given off by the liqueur?

When comparing fragrances emitted from container
plants sometimes we have to know that a plant grown
indoors may smell different than the same plant will
smell like grown outdoors. It is true that forms of
Grapefruit grown indoors exposed to early to late
sunlight can be rather potent in their fragrance.
If we look closely, we will see nectar also being
emitted and it is when we see this nectar the trees
blossoms will seem more potent than those same
flowers are after the nectar is no longer present.
Is it the perfume from the flowers or from the
nectar that is so heavenly to us? What draws
the bees in droves to the flowers, the perfume
from the flowers or the nectar emitted during
flowering that drives them wild?

Our personal favorites for standing in a Grove in
mid morning is the Washington Navel Orange.
Our favorite being downwind from the Grove
while in bloom in mid morning is the Orlando
Tangelo. Our favorite at sunset standing in
the grove is the Blood Orange and our favorite
downwind from a blooming Grove at sunset is
the Eureka Lemon. Then again we are biased
in our opinions. A lot of it is due to those Groves
settings, where they were located and when we
thought the most of them. By the way our
favorite grown as a container plant inside a
home is the Ruby Red Grapefruit! Time
to stop now.

Snickles

I thought I just read Millet saying you will never get fruits from a container grapefruit. You guys got fruits or just blossoms?

Mine only bloomed.. lost the tree before the fruitlets could grow. (Size of peas before it died)
Gina *BabyBlue*

I am so glad you've mentioned Sanguinelli blood orange, as I do have my eyes on one for my next container plant. The fruit is pretty unforgettable, too. Had my first taste last winter when I picked up a couple unknowingly from a bin marked "Florida oranges" at the grocery. Almost like an extremely sweet ruby red grapefruit. I think they were seedless, tho. Can't wait to have them again.

I forgot to tell everyone about the fragrance of a varigated pink lemon we were fortunate enough to sniff this past summer at a fruit stand near St Augustine Beach, FL. The plant was in a 1gal pot, with very pretty green and white leaves. There were about a handful blossoms, but the fragrance was heavenly. Buried our noses in the poor thing. Blossoms not as pretty, and fragrance not as nice as the ruby red grapefruit we had, but not too shabby, either. I am still kicking myself for not grabbing a couple of plants to bring home.

Thank you all for your input and words of wisdom.

It is not uncommon for Grapefruit not to set
flower buds while being grown indoors all the
time. Some trees can set out some flowers buds
on their own without any added help and some
trees may not ever set flower buds while being
grown indoors, no matter what we do for them.
We believe Mr.Shep in the UBC BG Citrus forum
has mentioned in a couple of threads that sometimes
we may have to force these indoor growing trees
to set flower buds. We also think he was referring
more about trees grown as seedlings from seed.
To better get these trees to set flower buds that
have not shown a propensity or desire to produce
flowers indoors, we can place them outdoors at
an appropriate time among other Citrus and let
other Citrus and bees help these trees set some
flower buds for us if flowers are what we want.
We can then bring the trees back indoors as the
flowers are forming if we choose or we can bring
the trees back indoors when we know we have
some fruit set on the tree. We have done this
same approach for friends and other people with
some stubborn trees they have or after years of
having their trees wanted them to set flowers.

One of us has done it for indoor, grown inside a
home, Avocados grown from seed as ornamental
plants living in a home for a number of years and
Citrus as well, among the Citrus have been Grapefruit.
We will say that a grafted or budded Grapefruit
grown indoors does not take as long as a seedling
Grapefruit will take to set flower buds, either on
its own or forced to set buds outdoors. Some
Grapefruit trees raised from seed grown indoors
may take many more years than a grafted form
will to set flower buds on its own, usually double
the length of time on average and we can figure
longer in some cases, depending on the trees
culture or not at all in other cases.

There are examples as we recall of a couple of
seedling grown Grapefruit referenced in the
UBC BG Citrus forum that have bloomed for
people growing their trees indoors all of the
time due to overly cold temperature limitations
where they are located. A person living in Nova
Scotia or Ontario Canada is not going to leave
these trees outdoors all the time if they want to
have Citrus, they may have to bring these trees
indoors for a good portion of the year. Others
in those same locations will simply grow these
trees indoors in their homes year round.

For a tree that has not flowered at all grown from
seed, then we have to trigger it to force it to set
flower buds. As far as Grapefruit grown in a
container cannot set fruit, we know this is not
the case for trees that one of us here at Snickles
has grown outdoors in containers. He has had
them produce fruit for him at his location before
he ever planted them into the ground later. He
has purchased Grapefruit trees in containers that
already had fruit on them. Where two of us are
located in contrast we have no Grapefruit that
we are growing here.

Grown in a greenhouse or grown indoors, even
some grafted varietal forms of Grapefruit grown
on as container plants may not ever fruit for us.
The Grapefruits are the toughest we know of
as a group to grow indoors both in a home and
in a greenhouse and get fruit set. Most of the
time without some triggering it just does not
happen from what we’ve seen from others trees,
hearing or reading of other accounts of their
trees in those indoor growing environments.

Snickles