Something I've been wondering about for a while now.
I grow citrus because it is a challenge to grow them in my zone. Also the colors and shapes of the fruit is something that makes me extra interested in them. I actually do not like to eat citrus, only drink the juice sometimes, so the trees in my collection will mostly have no need to be delicious. E.g. calamondin. I have this latter one just as a nice item in the collection.

Why do you all have citrus trees? In some climats citrus grows as easily as apple & pear trees do here so I guess the challenge of growing is kinda gone then. To bad I can't start a poll on this one. Would be nice to see the statistics on this.

Cheerios chaps !

for me it started out early in life. Taking vacations to florida and always coming home with those little souvenir trees only to have them die. the challenge to grow them here and the wow factor from friends that couldnt believe it could be done really contributed to my passion. I have always loved eating them so that is just a bonus.

For me it started very early in life also. I've always been fascinated by the large trees in the parks and in fact I still am!
Planting a citrus seed was just one of the things I did, but finding out that a citrus seed actually does grow made it really spcial!

This is a picture of my very first citrus plant, a grapefruit grown from seed. That picture must be about 40 years old...



Citrus has had a special place in my life ever since. And I do love the taste of citrus when they are in season.

Back then I was absolutely not aware of the diversity of citrus varieties that exist. There were juicing and eating oranges, there were lemons, grapefruit (only yellow) and of course mandarins and clementines. And then suddenly pink grapefruits became available. I remember not really liking the taste because I missed the typical bitterness.
And then came a fruit we didn't know the name of, but based on the shape and color it had to be a cross between an orange and a lemon. Now I know that fruit was a minneola tangelo. But if I ask my mother she will still tell me that fruit is a cross between orange and lemon!

Now that I have my own place I have a little room to keep some "real" citrus plants. And with the influence of this forum my citrus interest has become more like an obsession. I now have more plants than I actually have room for!

Well, having grown up in "citrus country", in Orange County, California, first home was built in a Valencia orange orchard (my dad convinced the develop not to remove all the trees, but to leave some trees in everyone's backyard, as it would sell more homes - and it did), I have grown up with a citrus tree in my yard since I was born. I love citrus, I eat citrus every day, at least one serving per day. It has been estimated that somewhere between 75 and 95% of the residential homes in S. California have at least 1 citrus tree. So, just grew up with citrus, part of our normal gardening life here

For me it is multiple reasons.

1. It reminds me of trips to California and Florida.
2. I like doing things that people say can't be done/ The challenge.
3. Citrus are among my favorite fruit, something I eat almost daily.
4. I love the smells of the flowers, the colors of the fruit and leaves.

I like growing "exotic" things in general: bananas, tropical fruit trees, palms, cannas,etc.
I have a "tropicalesque" style garden in my front yard.
The cold hardy citrus I have here really are focal points of the garden.

It keeps me out of trouble.

i love watching them growing, blooming, fruiting. like their dark green color of the leafs and different fruit colors of different species. It also does not take much time and effort to grow it. All i need to do is watering in summer and fertilizing and pruning in spring and however it always gives many fruits in autumn. Recently i started to drink citrus juice daily and since doing so, i feel better. Citrus somehow keeps me more awake while working, if i drink it in the morning. I do not feel sorry for a single euro, i spend on my citrus, and i spend more and more every year. The only thing i start to miss is a space for them. Another thing, which i constantly read in citrus literature is that they grow from 20th to 40th parallel, which is not true. Here one grows them planted in the ground on 45. parallel, which is the most northern citrus area in the world. So that is why it is even more beautiful to see them here, adopted to this climate.

It's the challenge to grow something that was not designed to grow where I live...and to bring a bit of the tropics to a place also not designed for where I live, so it's citrus and banana's, and orchids and a palm or two, we are all happy in Minnesota.

I think it had to do with owning my first home and always having a fancy to grow my own food. I later moved from our first home and into a house with 5 acres of half dead 30 year old grapefruit groves. I cleaned out the dead and dying trees and started topworking the remaining into other varieties. Of the 150 trees, I only have 20-30 done so far.

Phillip

Citrus fills in the fresh fruit gap between January and April. Thank God for citrus that hangs and actually improves on the tree.

I have about thirty planted in a non-traditional citrus area. Most people say I tend to do things in an extreme way.

That I'm a bit crazy. I think they are right.

I'm just crazy in a tropical kind of Citrus way.