Lemon Aid
Everyone loves lemon. Its smell enlivens and rejuvenates us, suggesting summer and the warmth of sunshine. The taste of lemon reminds us of iced tea with citrus slices and mile-high lemon meringue pies. It also makes our mouths pucker, creating that unmistakable twinge at the back of the jaws.
A lemon garden not only lends to these sensory pleasures but also becomes a joyous burst of light in the summer landscape. In overcast and rainy weather, it beckons with an atmosphere of luminosity, infusing the air with golden rays that remain into fall and right through winter.
Defining Boundaries
The first step in creating a lemon garden is to define its structure. With a backdrop of leafy plants, climbing vines and trees, your placement of lemon-hued plants will take on a more aesthetic and cohesive form.
Bea Grow, a member of the San Diego Horticulture Society, has filled her San Clemente gardens with lemony accents.
“It’s important when developing a good working structure, or what is referred to as the ‘bones of the garden,’ to first consider the permanency of trees, large evergreen shrubs, luxuriant perennials and hardscape elements like walls, fences and trellises,” Grow says.
“It is very difficult to have a garden that looks good without something definitive in the background, even tall, stately or rambling plants. You have to have something that marks the periphery, that says, ‘This is the edge of the garden; this is where the eye ends.’ ”
Easily managed evergreen shrubs can serve as a garden’s backbone. Use plants such as phontinia (P. fraseri) with dark green foliage as a screen or background and xylosma (X. senticosum) for its loose, graceful growing habit and yellowish-green leaves. A more compact shrub is pittosporum (mock orange) ‘Wheeler’s dwarf.’
Next, introduce classic climbers such as clematis, rose and wisteria, Grow suggests.
“Use variegated lime and dark green ivies, or ivies with gold-yellow markings, allowing them to intertwine with other leaves. Or put ivy on a trellis, and train it as an upright plant.”
Tall plants such as dahlias and gladiolas, which have yellow varieties, introduce sturdiness to beds (plants need to be well-staked early on). Lemon-colored cannas are spectacular in masses and, like dahlias and gladiolas, increase in number each year, adding maturity to the garden.
Sunflowers, hollyhocks (single and double), hibiscus and spiky lime-yellow blooms of euphorbia are other good choices; perennial yellow chrysanthemums give beds a late-season golden glow.
In planning your lemon garden, remember to focus on the size of each plant, its form and spreading habits and the color balance it will provide next to its neighbors when blossoming.
The Fragrant Herbs
Herbs are so versatile and easy to grow that, for the lover of lemon, they form an essential part of the lemon garden.
“People think of herbs as little plants that stay small,” says Ron Vanderhoff, president of the California Assn. of Nurserymen in Orange County and manager of Flowerdale Nursery in Santa Ana. “Some herbs actually grow to a mid-sized shrub, like lemon verbena, reaching 4 to 6 feet.” (The perennial does tend to look shabby in winter and needs to be cut back to 12 or 18 inches.)
“One of our most spectacular new herbs is a lemon variety of basil, ‘Sweet Dani,’ ” says Jeanne Dunn, owner of Herban Garden, an herb farm in Fallbrook, Calif. The annual “is a vigorous, large-leafed basil with a strong lemon scent that can reach 2 1/2 to 3 feet.”
Voted an All-American Selection for 1998, this basil is easy to grow from seed or nursery starts.
The leaves of pelargoniums, commonly referred to as scented-leaf geraniums, release volatile oils and pleasant aromas when rubbed.
“Mabel Grey is the most outstanding pelargonium for lemon scent,” says Grow, who is also a member of the Orange County Geranium Society. Reaching a height of 3 to 4 feet, it has bold palmate leaves, purple flowers and a lovely lemon verbena scent. “Last year, Ann Folkard, a hardy true geranium with light lime-colored leaves and magenta flowers, intertwined with Mabel Grey, and together they made the most fantastic sight.”
Adds Grow: “You can tell your pelargoniums from your regular geraniums very easily. Pelargoniums have five slightly asymmetrical petals that make up their flower blossoms. Geraniums, on the other hand, have round blossoms with five petals, all evenly spaced with uniform shape.”
A Gallery of Lemons
Any lemon garden worth its pucker boasts at least one lemon tree, whether grown in-ground or in a container. one idea is to flank the garden’s entrance with two terra-cotta pots planted with dwarf or semi-dwarf lemon trees. Or plant one glossy-leafed tree at the heart of the garden.
“Standard lemon trees will reach a height of 15 to 20 feet and are too large for most home gardens,” Vanderhoff says, and such trees are hard to harvest. “Semi-dwarf trees are better choices, reaching a height of 10 to 12 feet, as are true dwarf varieties, which top out at about 4 to 6 feet.”
Potted dwarf citrus will grow to the same size as in-ground trees, but at a much slower rate. If given a big enough container, a dwarf variety will never outgrow its pot. Semi-dwarfs will need transplanting after about five years.
Lemon trees require full sun and an even amount of fertilizer. Water throughout the season to keep trees healthy and to prevent the fruit from splitting. The subtropical plants rest in winter. Fertilize established trees three times a year, at two month intervals, beginning in March.
Feed container-grown citrus lightly twice a month from March through October; nutrients are leached from containers at a faster rate.
Up-Front Vegetables
“The variety of vegetables and herbs that can enhance garden borders is much broader than most people expect, including lemon vegetables and lemon-flowering herbs,” says Joyce McClellan, an advanced master gardener in Santa Clara County who sold her first tomato crop at age 10.
Years later, determined to expose the beauty of vegetables in the landscape rather than hidden in the back yard, she started her specialty seed company, Ornamental Edibles.
‘Rocdor,’ a pale-yellow bush snap bean with a delicate, buttery taste, is a beautiful landscape plant. It makes a spectacular color combination with the purple bush bean ‘Purple Queen,’ which turns dark green when cooked. Both are warm-season crops.
The lemon cucumber is an heirloom with crisp white flesh and pale yellow skin flecked with brown. Sorrel, grown for its fresh, lemony leaves, is coveted as an ingredient in soups and seafood sauces.
In a wide range of lemon-yellow tomatoes, some even taste of lemon, says Don Grimes, Orange County master gardener and member of the Orange County Organic Gardening Club. Grimes, s grower for the annual Fullerton Arboretum Greenscene, grows 40 to 50 tomato varieties each year. It’s important to know the mature size of your vine and where it will flourish, he notes.
“Indeterminate varieties are vining and can grow up to as much as 6 feet, if given support,” Grimes says. “You can pinch tomatoes back to control their size. The best way to grow them is in a cage made of wire mesh with 6-inch squares, so you can reach in and easily pick the fruit.”
Determinates are more bushy and need less support; they grow to about 4 feet high and 2 feet in diameter. Consider experimenting by interweaving the following tomato varieties into your lemon garden:
* ‘Lollipop’--with fruit like creamy yellow lollipops with a sweet, lemony flavor;
* ‘Plum Yellow’--hardy, with bright 3-inch fruits shaped like lemons;
* ‘Yellow Brandywine’--a large beefsteak shape and rich gold color;
* ‘Lemon Boy’--one of the best-tasting tomatoes, especially when pale yellow;
* ‘Golden Ponderosa’--large gold-ribbed fruit and a barely acidic flavor;
* ‘Banana Legs’--shaped like small bananas, a yellow paste tomato;
* ‘Green Grape’--a good cherry variety for container planting, with mottled skin of light green and yellow when ripe.
Blues in Bloom
A beautiful highlight to the lemon garden is yellow’s cooling companion--a touch of blue. To create a stunning border, combine a combination such as ‘Stella de Oro’ daylilies, ‘Moonbeam’ coreopsis, ‘Blue Star’ amsonia, baptista (false indigo) and chartreuse lady’s mantle.
An artichoke plant will add textural interest in a border and, allowed to mature past fruiting, develops a striking thistle-like blue blossom.
“Nicco blue hydrangeas give lovely structure and color to the garden,” Grow adds.
Add aluminum sulfate to the soil beginning in fall, from August through January, to heighten acidity and ensure deep blue flowers in spring. She also suggests the fragrant Salvia clevelandii, which has gray-green leaves and blue blooms.
‘Johnson’s Blue’ geranium and ‘Buxton’s Variety’ are two hardy geraniums with pure blue flowers. Plant ‘Johnson’s Blue’ for early flowering in the front of borders among yellow marguerites and daylilies. Introduce ‘Buxton’s Variety’ toward the back of the garden, where it will climb and intertwine among other plantings, perhaps creamy yellow foxglove and sprays of yarrow.
The perennial Himalayan poppy (Meconopsis grandis) is said to possess the purest blue flower, by which all other blues are measured. A bit difficult and in need of pampering, it does best in areas with cooler temperatures, Grow says.
Perennial Anchusa boraginaceae ‘Loddon Royalist,’ has large showy blossoms of a vibrant true blue pigment. Chartreuse-petaled flowers, such as lady’s mantle and coleus, and lime-leafed herbs make a beautiful contrast when coupled with cool blues.
Suggests Grow: “Use illuminating hardy geraniums for perennials in shady areas, such as ‘Brookside’ with medium-blue flowers; ‘Buxton’s Variety,’ a deep Wedgewood blue; and Pratense ‘Mrs. Kendall Clark’ with marbled, pearly blue flowers.”
Other blue bloomers include annuals such as bachelor’s button, borage, delphinium (some treated as perennials), lupine, lobelia ‘Cambridge Blue,’ love-in-a-mist and pansy.
Perennials include agapanthus, aster, balloon flower, Buddleia davidii ‘Nanho Blue’ (deciduous shrub), campanula, catmint, clematis (deciduous vine), columbine, delphinium, forget-me-not, iris, lavender, rosemary, rue (fern-like, blue-green herb), salvia, scabiosa, veronica, violet and Viola sororia ‘Freckles.’
As you enter the lemon garden at day’s end, the long, golden trumpets of datura and translucent spires of delphinium bathed in honey-colored late afternoon sun are more than enough reward for your efforts. And if a few bright-faced buttercups take up residence in your lemon garden . . . well, why not?
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Lemon Trees
There are many wonderful lemon tree varieties, all with year-round foliage, overlapping flowers and dangling, vivid-yellow fruits, each with unique characteristics. Following are some backyard favorites:
* Eureka is the common lemon, with thick yellow skin and a point at one end. Its fruit is yellow and highly acidic, with many seeds. This would be the foremost lemon for meringue pie, lemonade and other dishes in which a pure, tart taste is desired. Eureka is a large-leafed, upright tree, which often puts out odd shoots here and there. As a dwarf, it appears more dense with large, dark leaves.
* Ponderosa bears enormous, grapefruit-sized lemons. This variety is grown more as a novelty; the fruit’s rind is very thick, and there’s not much meat inside.
* Improved Meyer is not a true lemon, but a hybrid of lemon and sweet orange. With an almost flowery fragrance, it is essentially seedless and is much juicier than other varieties. This continuous bloomer holds it shape well and has tremendous ornamental value.
* Sungold has dark and light green stripes on its fruits, skin and mottled leaves. An appealing semi-dwarf, Sungold was bred from the Eureka for a more decorative appearance.
* Pink lemonade is similar to Sungold but with pink flesh and juice. This is also a variation of the Eureka, though it has a green stripe to its yellow skin.
* Buddha’s Hand is another novelty choice with large fruits and long, finger-like outgrowths. Not really a lemon, this citrus has a thick rind with little pulp in its interior. The rind is where the flavor is found; it’s used in traditional Asian cooking.
Sources
* Herban Garden, 136 Ranger Road, Fallbrook, CA 92028. (800) 407-5268. 200 varieties of herbs, vegetables and ever-lastings.
* Canyon Creek Nursery, 3527 Dry Creek Road, Oroville, CA 95965. (916) 533-2166. Geraniums and perennials; catalog $2.
* Ornamental Edibles, 3622 Weedin Court, San Jose, CA 95132. (408) 946-7333. Catalog $2.
* Santa Barbara Heirloom Seedling Nursery, P.O. Box 4235, Santa Barbara, CA 93140. (805) 968-5444. A variety of heirloom tomatoes; catalog $1.
