{Fall is the Spring of Winter}

It is a good thing that around us, in nature and often in our own garden, little miracles happen.

That sure does soften the harsh outlook into this world at times of grief for so many...

Fall is the Spring of Winter ~ Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Der Herbst ist der Frühling des Winters (German translation)...
Our Citrus trees blooming on November 11!

Lots of highly fragrant flowers are opening up.
But on Saturday, November 14 we had around 34°F or 1°C and thus, Pieter did bring all our tender tropical pot plants into the greenhouse.

In a previous post I did show you already this Monarch Butterfly...

Such a lovely sight and what a delicious nectar source for the Monarch Butterfly!
I myself also LOVE honey collected from orange blossoms.

Indeed, Fall is the Spring of Winter!

Wishing the Monarch Butterfly good luck when it makes its journey south bound and may the Citrus Trees continue their blooming inside the greenhouse.

Blessings and Peace!

Related link:
{Monarch Butterfly - Danaus Plexippus} | previous post by me

google.com/+MariettesBacktoBasics

{Monarch Butterfly - Danaus Plexippus}

On November 12 I was lucky to capture a beautiful Monarch Butterfly Danaus plexippus while it was feasting on a Citrus Flower.

This is a screen shot from the video I made.
There is a spider inside and on the video you see it come outside.

Twice this Monarch butterfly opened its wings for me; very kind!
Do you notice those thorns on the Citrus tree?
They are mean as hell for bringing inside and out of the greenhouse...

Hope you enjoyed this beautiful Monarch butterfly! Related links: {Aptenia Cordifolia or Heartleaf Ice Plant} | previous post by me showing a Cloudless sulphur butterfly {Out of Body Experience} | previous post by me showing a Giant Swallowtail  google.com/+MariettesBacktoBasics  

{Our Lemon 'Meyer' Citrus limon}

Yesterday I did eat part of our Lemon 'Meyer' Citrus limon harvest. You can get them at +Logee's Greenhouses. The two that Pieter did harvest, were together on a branch and were touching each other. They are very juicy but the skin is rather thick. Not a great citrus I guess for growing commercially. So let me show you the results. There are still some hanging on the tree. Till it starts freezing the pots are on the brick patio near the greenhouse. Once the weather changes they have to be moved inside the greenhouse.

This is how they looked after I sliced them up.

Out in the sunshine on the balcony...

They do have seeds too.

These Lemon 'Meyer' Citrus limon were quite heavy.

This photo is from August 3, still growing. If we would not have watered them, they for sure would not have been as juicy as they turned out!

Two harvested. They certainly don't look perfect and had some Citrus Mealybugs. But that's what you can call 100% organically grown and NO pesticide was used on them.

Not the quality citrus you would see at e.g. Whole Foods...

Here you can see even better how 100% organically grown looks like. Also with Pieter's fingers you can get a feel for their size. The two spots where they grew together does not look very attractive. They didn't win the beauty contest!
~~0~~

Read below the unbelievable story about 'No Lemon Tree!!!' where such a Lemon 'Meyer' Citrus limon got confiscated by the USDA. I just found out tonight as Zemanta did show this to the right of my blog post here... Curious, I read it and was SHOCKED! The Government taking this away from the US Citizens?! There seems to be a lot wrong with our personal freedom...

Related articles:

• {More of Our Citrus} | previous post by me
• {Our Citrus Aurantifolia - Key Lime} | previoius post by me
• No Lemon Tree !!! (2012patriot.wordpress.com)

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{More of Our Citrus}

Just like to show you more of our citrus, these photos are from June 6 and the last one is from August 12 of 2010 so you can see the end result of all those blossoms. Heavenly fragrance... such a joy to have those! Have a look at those up close pictures of the sweet blossoms and their lush buds. My husband Pieter took those for you to enjoy. Next time you eat an orange, you will know how they developed...

A spider build her web-nest in-between those buds... Smart!

All our citrus trees are in huge planters and are on the brick patio in front of the green house.

I believe this is the Citrus Limon Ponderosa from +Logee's Greenhouses 

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{Our Citrus Aurantifolia - Key Lime}

Most readers from the USA will no doubt know the delicious Key Lime Pie. For those of you, that don't know: What are Key Limes, click on the hyperlink to read more about them. The botanical name is Key Lime 'Citrus aurantifolia' and they are available at Logee's Greenhouse, just click again on hyperlink. For a good recipe, you can look here: Key Lime Pie History and Recipe.

Now that being said, let's look at the blossoms of this famous Citrus Aurantifolia "Key Lime" which is on the patio in front of our greenhouse. They're certainly worth a Garden Tour to see and  for their fragrance to be smelled.
Pieter took these excellent photos on June 2nd. And by the way; yes both of us went to Key West, the southern most island of the USA. That was last year in early February when I just was out of the hospital and could walk and move again after having been paralyzed because of a rare auto immune disease. The last photos are from there. We did stay at the Hyatt Key West Resort and Spa where I'd booked a year in advance, a free stay for 5 nights from our Hyatt points. So glad we made it, thanks to my timely recovery! 

Heavenly fragrant blossoms, like all citrus trees.

Very long thorns too!

Citrus trees do have very long thorns on their branches.

Top left you can see already a Key Lime being near maturity. To the right is our greenhouse, where they reside during winter time.

Growing well...

Photo from our balcony at the HYATT CENTRIC KEY WEST RESORT & SPA.

That's me standing in front of the Guesthouse where our German 'son' with his family stayed in 2008.

I have gained already 3 kg or 6.6 lbs in this photo; up from 46.8 kg.

There is much to be grateful for as I've come a long way!

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{Murraya Paniculata 'Orange Jasmine'}

• Today I want to introduce our 'Orange Jasmine' Murraya paniculata.
• Again, a plant with highly fragrant blossoms. We have them in planters, outside during the three seasons and inside during winter.
• This tropical plant is available from +Logee's Greenhouses  Orange Jasmine Murraya Paniculata in  Connecticut and that's where ours came from. They do have all kind of exotic plants and lots of citrus plants too. Look for some photos at the very end of this blog, our citrus trees in a pot do even bear fruits!

• This is such a heavenly scented plant; like the: {White Indian Jasmine the Queen of Flowers} in a previous blog, which I showed on August 17th.

• The planters are on the stone patio, in front of our greenhouse. My Dad helped building it, together with Pieter. That's where all our pots will spend their three months period, till the weather is mild enough to be put outside again. Of course it is always too small... 

• To the left of the greenhouse there are numerous pots that also need to be placed inside the greenhouse... 
• This is the wooden trail that Pieter build, going alongside the gazebo towards the house. 
• Our own private walking trail and there are also trails in the wood garden, when crossing the three bridges over the creek. Lots of work done, one day I will show photos how it looked 20 years ago and what we made out of it. 
• We are the very first people ever living and working on this lot. That's the name for the land where you build your home; used here in the South East of the USA. 
• We are blessed for having such a private paradise all to our own!
• Now as promised our citrus trees; in pots:

• This is a closeup of the pot you see to the right in front of the greenhouse.

• This gives a good idea of its size... a photo from last year. They ripen inside the greenhouse as our season is not long enough.

• Yet another variety, inside the greenhouse during winter.
• One year when Mom & Dad were visiting again in March 1996, from The Netherlands, I left them all on the tree and gave Mom a basket to pick the oranges from the tree behind the gazebo on the patio. That moment from Monday, March 25 of 1996 is being videotaped...
• Mom enjoyed that very much and they were sweet and tasty too in our yogurt with granola for breakfast. 

• The orange blossom is something to enjoy. Often I did use them with jasmines and floating candles for a center piece when friends came to dinner...

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