You Don’t Need a Greenhouse to Grow Citrus Indoors

Shattering the glass ceiling isn’t always a goal — not if you’re a certain beloved lemon tree growing in a Victorian-era greenhouse.

The tree in question, a Ponderosa lemon planted almost 125 years ago by the founder of Logee’s nursery, in Danielson, Conn., has been pruned to stay within bounds by three generations of his family. Even so, the nine-foot tree has delivered consistent bounties for more than a century — fruits that are closer to the size of a grapefruit than a lemon — with no sign of letting up.

And those prunings? Every year, they result in thousands of cuttings that are rooted for customers who will then grow them in pots — edible houseplants with a provenance.

In another greenhouse at the popular destination nursery, a century-old kumquat tree (Fortunella margarita), the bearer of little fruits to be eaten skin and all, is what the founder’s grandson, Byron Martin, refers to as “sort of a matriarch.”

Such venerable trees inspired the nursery’s impressive collection of rare and tropical plants, including fruiting ones, with an emphasis on those adapted to container culture.