My lemon tree is starting to revive! New leaves are growing in and i have 4 new flowers blooming! With 3 little lime like fruit. I’m so happy – I haven’t killed it!

My little lemon tree came in a 10″ black plastic pot with drainage holes on the bottom and sides.  Currently it’s sitting on top of a baking tray because that’s the only thing I have at home to hold any water that may seep out.  Not too pretty…so comes project Terra Cotta pot!

Found a 12″ terra cotta pot from Ikea on sale for $3.99.  what a deal!  I decided that I would seal it, paint it, glaze it and voila – as good as any other $30 dollar pots.

Step 1 – grab a 40% off coupon from Michael’s and get a sealer and paint.  Decided on a bright yellow and plain white paint colour.  Bought mod podge sealer.

Step 2 – tape up paint areas – paint away – 3 coats seems to do the trick

sooo…about a week after Nick gave me the cute little lemon tree, we went away on a little holiday to Banff, Alberta.  Immediately I was worried – what’s going to happen to my lemon tree ?  I tried to macgyver an auto water dispenser from a water bottle – but the trial went badly as the water pushed through the pin holes too quickly and was drained completely into the soil within a day – I was hoping that it would slowly dispense over the course of a week.

So I was left without any option other than hope and pray that the little tree will live from neglect of 7 days.  The day we left, the tree was in full bloom – about 10 or so white flowers had blossomed – it was beautiful.  I counted about 6 or so little pea size green lemons growing.  It was in perfect health.

….7 days later….

I came home – first thing I did was to hold my breath and check the tree.  The flowers had all dried up and there were tons of leaves on the floor!!!  *cry*

Over the course of the next few days – the plant continued to shed its leaves – every bit of movement means more leaves would fall.

sigh.  green thumbs has evolved to black thumbs and it only took about 2 weeks.

I have put it by the window with lots of sunlight but not directly against it as I think it’s too cold.

Let’s see if it will come back to me over the next little while.

*crossing fingers*

All I want for Christmas is…..a lemon tree!

and Nick delivered! ho ho ho!

About a week before Christmas, I came home and there it was!  It is beautiful – about 3 ft high.  2 ft wide. with 5 little pea sized green lemon stub, and 5 white flower bulbs ready to bloom.  It has a light fragrant smell that is not overwhelming.

My new house project is to keep this little guy alive.  It didn’t occur to me when i asked for a lemon tree for Christmas that I don’t exactly have a green thumb.  In fact – most of plants that I owned has died.  Including one cactus, numerous African violets, and several bamboos.

so this will certainly be interesting…wish me luck!