For thousands of years citrus trees have held sway over gardeners. They were among the first plants to have ever been cultivated and their fragrant flowers, glowing fruits and gleaming foliage have attracted devoted followers who have gone to great lengths to ensure they thrive. It puts the current infestation of scale on my lemon, lime and orange into perspective.
Had I kept a closer eye on things this powdery fungus, which grows off the sweet honeydew excreted by the scale, wouldn’t have taken such a hold and the once luminous leaves wouldn’t have been reduced to their current lacklustre black.In the words of 17th-century silk merchant and citrus fanatic Johann Christoph Volkamer, a gardener should be “intelligent and thoughtful” but also “industrious and untiring”.
After making the drawings Volkamer had them engraved and then he went a step further by having the citrus imagery paired with copperplate engravings of German gardens, Italian villas and picturesque slices of countryside. The fruits – life size and close-up – were positioned at the top so that they hovered like space ships above the more distant city views.
If you’re growing passion fruits it’s said “urinate on them for faster, better, more fruitfull growth” who wants to even think about that coz eating it N4M