A cold hardy lime that I haven't yet killed

I am a notorious citrus tree killer. I admit it. It's not that I'm trying to kill all of them, it just happens. I think I've gone through at least three Meyer Lemon trees and one Kaffir Lime. And possibly a Key Lime. None of them ever flowered or produced any fruit.

Look at them baby limes!

My husband, at this point, is very doubtful of my abilities in citrus. So, last year when I enthusiastically brought home a cold hardy Sudachi Lime that I could plant in the ground and leave outside year round, he was less than excited. He thought I was nuts. I believe there may have been some eye rolling. This was a year ago.

But the lime tree is still alive! And living outside! In the ground! And, lo and behold, it has about 10 baby limes growing on it. He's still doubtful. Granted, the plant is only about two feet tall and they may not survive, but I'm fairly confident this time around that I'll be enjoying some lime based beverage soon. A very small lime based beverage since the fruit only gets about as big as a golf ball. But I'm not picky. I've got limes!

Have you had any success growing citrus - keeping them outdoors in the summer and moving them indoors or just keeping them indoors? Of course, if you live in the south, I'm assuming you have more citrus fruit than you can possibly handle. And, I'm incredibly jealous.

Being "helpful"

My mother, she means well. But, ever since she retired she's taken up complaining full-time. And when she isn't doing that, she spends her time trying to be helpful, which oftentimes isn't.

I should have known better when she started dropping hints about my "dead" Meyer lemon tree. Apparently, she had asked my husband over the weekend, no, I take that back, she had stated that we/she should pull all the leaves off my lemon tree. You know, the one that was recently under duress after being covered by a foot of snow and then stressed from being brought indoors and was attempting to recover?

Anyway, pulling off leaves is her idea of somehow readying it for the spring. She has a one-size fits all approach to plants and when she sees a less than green and glossy leaf, she pulls it off. Her only experience is with indoor plants, so how hard can it be?

My husband, not very unequivocally (because he doesn't know either), suggested that not all plants are the same and that maybe she should talk to me about it. It wouldn't have mattered all that much because, even if I had told her "please don't" or "no way", she would have gone ahead and done it anyway, since she knows best. Or, at the very least, that's what she thinks.

Now, don't get me wrong, she truly believes she does things with our best interests in mind. She just doesn't agree with what our best interests are. Hence, when I came home the other day (she was watching Emma for a bit), I was surprised to see that my Meyer lemon tree had been exceptionally defoliated or, rather, exfoliated.



Yes, she decided to pull off most of the leaves with Emma's help (and there were a lot). They left a few on so you can see that they weren't exactly healthy and would have fallen off all on their own, but I wanted to let the tree decide when it was going to drop its leaves for fear that yanking them out would further stress the already stressed tree. As you can also see, the branches are still green and there are little buds on it, so there's hope yet.

And, realistically, it probably won't affect the tree all that much. But, why oh why? This isn't the first time she's taken to pruning my plants after telling her no. I'm fairly certain she just thinks I'm terribly misguided.

Do you have someone in your life that tries to be "helpful"?