Bob the Lemon Tree

By Ed

I grew Bob the Lemon Tree from a seed that I planted in a pot on the window sill of my dorm room in the first semester of my freshman year at the University of Dallas (Fall 1981). He was very small for a long time, so I named him in honor of my friend Bob Kamertz, who was very short.

Bob used to ride back and forth between Dallas and Houston with me on summer and holiday breaks. Once, I went to a Peter, Paul & Mary concert on my way out of Dallas before heading home for a summer break, and Bob got scorched in the car. His leaves were like paper by the time the concert was over, and I was sure that I’d killed my citrus friend. But I gave him some water, and after a week or two, a new shoot sprouted from Bob’s trunk about an inch above the soil, and Bob came back stronger than ever. But he remained no more than three or four feet tall for many years.

After I’d lived in my current house for a couple of years, I decided that Bob was ready to live in the ground, so I planted him in the open space in the middle of my back patio. More room for his roots was just what he needed, and within a couple of years, he was 10 feet tall.

I’d always assumed that Bob was the product of de-hybridization and that he would never bear fruit, because he didn’t even flower for the first 15 years or so of his life. Then in the late ’90s, after a few years in the ground (and some tree spikes), he cranked out a tiny crop—about a dozen lemons. (The crop was tiny in number, but the lemons were huge.)

Now, Bob reaches almost to the roof of the two-story garage apartment, and he produces several hundred fruits a year, which we give away to friends or turn into lemonade. Jo likes to turn them into lemon icebox pie. Mmmmm!

Pictures to come….