Plant Library

Description:

An attractive columnar shrub that bears small orange fruit, adding interest to the lovely variegated foliage; a nice landscape planting as a hedge or screen; great container plant for the patio or indoors in colder climates

Edible Qualities

Variegated Calamondin Orange is a large shrub that is commonly grown for its edible qualities. It produces small orange fruit which are usually ready for picking from early spring to late winter. The fruits have a sweet taste.

The fruit are most often used in the following ways:

• Fresh Eating
• Cooking
• Juice-Making
• Sauces

Features & Attributes

Variegated Calamondin Orange features showy clusters of fragrant white star-shaped flowers at the ends of the branches in early spring. It has attractive creamy white-variegated dark green foliage with hints of bluish-green. The glossy oval leaves are highly ornamental and remain dark green throughout the winter. It features an abundance of magnificent orange berries from early to late spring.

This is a multi-stemmed evergreen shrub with a narrowly upright and columnar growth habit. Its average texture blends into the landscape, but can be balanced by one or two finer or coarser trees or shrubs for an effective composition. This is a relatively low maintenance plant, and is best pruned in late winter once the threat of extreme cold has passed. It is a good choice for attracting birds, bees and butterflies to your yard. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Aside from its primary use as an edible, Variegated Calamondin Orange is sutiable for the following landscape applications;

• Accent
• Hedges/Screening
• Orchard/Edible Landscaping
• Container Planting

Planting & Growing

Variegated Calamondin Orange will grow to be about 15 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 8 feet. It has a low canopy with a typical clearance of 1 foot from the ground, and is suitable for planting under power lines. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for 50 years or more.

This plant is typically grown in a designated edibles garden. It does best in full sun to partial shade. It prefers to grow in average to moist conditions, and shouldn't be allowed to dry out. It is not particular as to soil type or pH. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. This is a selected variety of a species not originally from North America.

Variegated Calamondin Orange is a good choice for the edible garden, but it is also well-suited for use in outdoor pots and containers. Its large size and upright habit of growth lend it for use as a solitary accent, or in a composition surrounded by smaller plants around the base and those that spill over the edges. It is even sizeable enough that it can be grown alone in a suitable container. Note that when grown in a container, it may not perform exactly as indicated on the tag - this is to be expected. Also note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden. Be aware that in our climate, this plant may be too tender to survive the winter if left outdoors in a container. Contact our experts for more information on how to protect it over the winter months.