I have a plant nursery that developed out of my obsession and I have a lot of stuff planted out around the property, but I would be embarrassed to claim it warranted the title of botanical garden (although I would love it to justify that title eventually). I’m always happy to show my plants to anyone who shares an interest in them. Just keep in mind it’s always more impressive “on paper” than in person. lol
The wonderful plant species that can be grown in this region seems inexhaustible. I’m sure your garden reflects that.
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Try as I might I just can’t run out of new plants to try (despite being pretty picky).
We have a similar affliction my friend. Have you been experimenting with any of the pomegranate varieties that have early ripening? Like with the more tender citrus, pomegranates have a huge advantage if you can grow them under a covered patio with polycarbonate roof. Doesn’t even need to be heated. That extra little bit of heat makes a huge difference. I have two new types of pomegranate, the names I can’t remember off the top of my head. I’m propagating lots of those if that interests you. I’m significantly south of you so getting up there isn’t part of my typical rotation. I go south to California for more often than I go north into Washington. But next time I do I’d be stoked to check out your collection.
I quote from the book “Citrus for the Gulf Coast” by J. Stewart Nagle: Swingle citrumelo=>“fairly juicy but juice sour and very bitter with strong astringency and gum cells to carry flavor.” Morton citrange=> Although the fruit looks like an ordinary orange, it has much worse flavor. Juice cannot be diluted to obtain satisfactory flavor, but the fruit may be consumed with a grapefruit spoon , if one is careful to not scrape too many astringent oil droplets off the section walls." Citrandarin=> moderately juicy, juice with sour trifoliate-mandarin flavor, somewhat bitter and astringent. Phelps citrange=>“The fruit should carry a warning label: Caution you are not really being poisoned - it just tastes that way.” US119 or “Snow Sweet”=>"juicy with a moderately sweet orange flavor, but with and unpleasant, lingering bitter trifoliate aftertaste. Not as sweet as Morton citrange but more attractive and with much less “bite.” I don’t know about you but I prefer citrus fruit that doesn’t have a “bite.” Ichang lemon=>“very juicy, juice sour but insipid, without much distinctive flavor.”
To my taste, the thomasville citrangequat is the closest of the “cold hardy citrus” hybrids to edibility. However fruit from the seedling tree I have tastes horrible so I found a better selection and grafted it to my tree. The juice from my seedling thomasville could not be sweetened with any amount of sugar. However, even with the better selection of thomasville, most people wouldn’t eat it. I have heard some of the amateur citrus hybridizers of Houston say “there are cold hardy citrus and there are good tasting citrus but there are no cold hardy good tasting citrus.”
Since 2000 I’ve heard these thought experiments about "cold hardy’ many times the result being exactly nothing. Citrus hybridizers in the Houston area have been trying since the 1950s to breed “cold hardy” desert quality fruit. Biggest problem in Houston is we get a week of 80s weather that wakes citrus up and then a night of 16F that kills the tree rootstock and all since the sap is flowing.
I’ve also heard it say from breeders that the awful taste of trifoliate fruit lingers much longer than cold hardiness when making poncirus crosses. I’ve actually tasted an edible trifoliate cross named sancitchang which was 1/8 or 1/16 trifoliate. But alas to get cold hardiness you sacrifice edibility so by the time the fruit is edible it is not any longer cold hardy.
Don’t let me discourage you from trying but the liklihood of a “cold hardy” citrus being edible is near zero if judging from the last 60 years experience in the Houston area. Interest gets aroused everytime we have another citrus killing freeze like in 1962, 1989, 2021 and 2022. Lately haven’t heard much since the last two freezes.
I believe that practical experience having actually tasted trifoliate crosses beats out “thought experiments” and wildly over-rated exaggerations from ebay sellers every time.
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@anon47724557 Your logic seems to be “I haven’t seen it so it’s not possible”. The world is bigger than you and things like plant breeding (especially done small scale by private enthusiasts) can take a LOT of time. Your failure to see progress on this front is no reason for the rest of us to not take interest in both currently existing hardy Citrus as well as new hybrids.
One thing you are completely overlooking is the fact that there are a fair number of us who have actually found we can use pure trifoliate fruit when available and so will also be able to find some use for the improved hybrids even if they aren’t suited for fresh eating straight off the tree. Please stop overlooking the fact that not everyone experiences things the same as you.
Thanks! 
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It’s been hard finding info about ripening time for many of the varieties available, but I’ve been trialing a number of pomegranates which I found at least some anecdotes indicating they may be earlier ripening. I’ve not yet gotten any of mine to flower since I’m primarily growing them in ground with no supplemental water (I’ve found they absolutely love having an abundant water source and can grow them much faster in pots). I have noticed some varieties are much hardier than others so have determined about half the varieties I’ve tried so far simply aren’t hardy enough to be worth growing here (unless in a greenhouse).
Here’s a link to a blog post I update periodically to track my progress with trialing my pomegranates:
Thanks, I’ll check out this info later when I have some time. I got some specimens that are supposedly the earliest ripening variety that still has excellent commercial quality flavor. They produce fruit every year in coastal areas around the Black Sea which is very similar climatically to the Pacific Northwest on the wet side or the mountains. I actually got LOTS of gorgeous blooms last summer. Unfortunately none of the fruit set. I’m hoping it’s because the plant was only 3 years old at the time. I should have lots of those this summer after rooting the cuttings. I’ve got them going in the greenhouse now.
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A Filipino friend of mine made something resembling sour orange marmalade out of kaffir hystrix fruit. Less sweet, more pungent and bitter, used as a condiment on fish and in stews and fruit salad. It was good in what I tasted!
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Cool. I’m guessing that wouldn’t go well with my palate. I usually don’t even like orange, lemon, lime zest or peel, and hate kumquats.
But good to hear of other uses.
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Citrus zest and kumquats…
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Let’s continue the pomegranate conversation over here (to avoid derailing the Citrus conversation):
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Does this look like Yuzu to anyone who grows it? It was a seedling grown from a miscellaneous citrus seed jar that included all sorts of things, including yuzu:
I planted it in the ground today based on my hunch it might be yuzu.
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Definitely looks like something with ichang papeda in its ancestry, what with the bipartite leaves.
My ichang lemon has a much shorter first segment, and is much more bushy.
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I agree it looks like an yuzu. What’s your opinion about the ichang papeda taste?
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Ichang lemon is currently the only one I have that has ichang papeda genetics, and it hasn’t fruited for me yet.
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It looks like a match to my Yuzu.
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I got some trifoliate orange seeds, that I’m going to start. Do they need a period of cold stratification, soaking before planting, clipping or scratching the seed hull?
I have had excellent results planting citrus seed straight from the fruit.
Good luck
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