Eremorange, caviar lime – Citrus glauca × Citrus sinensis

The eremorange combines the sweet orange with the Australian desert lime, one of the most heat- and drought-resistant citrus. It keeps the fine, grey-green foliage of the desert lime, reminiscent of the olive tree. Its pulp separates into small, crunchy, intensely fragrant vesicles.

• Parentage: Australian desert lime (Citrus glauca, formerly Eremocitrus glauca) × sweet orange (Citrus sinensis)
• Hardiness: −13 to −15 °C in a well-sheltered position
• Fruit: small, yellow-orange, pulp in crunchy vesicles
• Ripening: mid-September to mid-October
• Uses: table lemon, zest, tarts, marmalade, jam
• Habit: vigorous, highly ornamental, olive-tree silhouette

In the garden

Give it the warmest wall in the garden and very free-draining, even stony soil. Protect it below −8 °C during its first years. It looks superb in a large pot, brought indoors in winter to a bright, cool room.

The plant you receive

You receive a young grafted tree about 40 cm tall above the pot, low-grafted onto a Poncirus trifoliata rootstock from our own production. Planted young, it roots straight into your garden soil and establishes better than a tree kept in a pot for years.

Because it is grafted low, the variety itself forms the trunk: the tree stands on its own without a stake and can regrow from above the graft after a severe frost. All our citrus trees are grown at 1,000 m altitude in the Livradois, never in a heated greenhouse, with organic fertiliser only.

Grafted trees are shipped from June; the rest of the year, you can pre-order them.