Choose a citrus tree as your stunning garden specimen tree.
Citrus are underrated specimen trees that offer a massive bang for little effort or expense.
They are evergreen, offering gorgeous waxy green leaves, great fragrant flowers that the bees love, and in winter when all around is leafless and colourless, they offer bright happy pops of colourful fruit that can feed your family much-needed vitamin C over winter.
Citrus trees are gross feeders meaning they are hungry trees and need higher levels of potassium and magnesium so using a fertilizer specifically for citrus is important. Yellowing of the leaves is a common indication the citrus tree could be lacking in magnesium. Feed in the spring and again in the late summer to encourage maximum flowering and fruiting.
Mulch well as citrus trees do require consistent moisture in the ground and water over summer if there has been little rain.
Prune to your desired shape to allow good airflow, but do not prune in Sept and October to avoid borer layer eggs in fresh cuts.
In the first year after planting remove any young fruit to give your tree time to put its energy into growth.
Citrus can be planted in pots or in the ground.
I have a dwarf mandarin tree in a pot that is only 3 feet tall and produces about 50 sweet mandarins every year giving me a massive return on my investment and the pot looks awesome in the winter on my deck.