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Your own orchard, indoors
Free fruit and great smells are just some of the benefits

Kathy Van Mullekom
Diggin' In
January 29, 2009

Move over Norfolk Island pine, ficus and peace lily.

Houseplants that produce big juicy lemons for sweet lemonade or limes for Key Lime pie may be the better way to go.

How about a miniature fig plant that yields medium-sized plump figs for snacking? Or, a coffee plant for fixing your own cup of java?

Indoor orchards, just like outdoor vegetable gardens, provide practical alternatives to ornamental gardening.

"The first time I walked into a greenhouse and smelled the flowering citrus plants and saw the bright yellow lemons, I knew they had to be a part of my life," says Billi Parus.

Today, Billi, an avid gardener and herbalist who lectures across Hampton Roads, cares for lemons, kumquats, limes, oranges and strawberry guava at her home in Virginia Beach.

"All of my citrus plants are in pots," she says. "Overall, they like to be outside. I put them outside the minute day time temperatures are 50 degrees and night temperatures are above 40 degrees. Likewise, when the night-time temperatures drop to 40 degrees in fall and stay there or below, I bring the citrus plants indoors. They flower all year long, so to ensure fruits all year long, I am the 'pollinator' while they are in the house for winter. A soft-bristled paintbrush does the trick, with a little guidance from me.

"And there is nothing like citrus flower fragrance, truly a perfume, when I come downstairs on a winter morning."

When Billi brings the plants indoors, she keeps them in the kitchen in an east/south-east facing bay window with skylights above.

"This is the best light in the house and it seems to please them," she says.

If bugs bother them, she uses insecticidal soap and rubbing alcohol to cure the problem. Outdoors, she fertilizes the plants monthly with a special citrus fertilizer and waters them when their leaves droop.

"Citrus overall like to be pot bound," she says. "So I check them each spring when they go outside for summer to see if any need repotting at that time. Four weeks before bringing them in for winter, I spray once a week with insecticidal soap to make sure I'm not bringing in bugs for the winter."

Locally, you'll find garden center greenhouses filled with lemon, lime and orange plants that thrive in a warm, sun-filled room at your home.

Logee's tropical plant catalog — www.logees.com — features specialties plants that bear papaya, pineapple, kumquat, lime, coffee berries and banana. Its African Miracle Fruit is a red-berried plant that's sweet and pleasing to the palate, even after you eat something sour.