We love December, since that’s when the grapefruits start to rain down from our xCitroncitrus ‘Dustan’ tree at JLBG. Few people who come to the garden actually look up enough to notice this fascinating plant. xCitroncitrus ‘Dunstan’ is a bigeneric hybrid between the hardy trifoliate orange, Poncirus trifoliata and a grapefruit. The result is a winter hardy fruit that’s pretty darn close in size, taste, and appearance to a grapefruit. To be technically correct, the fruit is known as a Citrumelo. Whatever you want to call it, it’s pretty darn cool to be harvesting hardy citrus here in Zone 7b. Last year, we harvested over 3 dozen fruit off our single tree.
That’s just awesome. Is this hybrid something you offer? Would love to grow grapefruit in Atlanta!
We probably better not venture into hardy citrus in the nursery, but these should be available from hardy citrus growers. We got our plant from Gary’s Nursery in New Bern, so start your search there. If he doesn’t carry it, then check out some of the hardy citrus groups on FB.
Is the tree to the south or west of the house?
East