When anything goes wrong with a citrus plant then the florist, nurseryman and everyone down the line is in trouble. The main reason is that these are expensive plants to buy and the purchaser is more likely as a consequence to seek advice. When first bought, plants normally have an abundance of glossy green leaves, small orange-coloured fruits, green unripened fruit and, for good measure, heavily scented white flowers.

With all these attractions the plant is almost bound to be costly, even if you discount the length of time it takes to bring it to maturity: the longer plants spend in the heated greenhouses of the nursery the more the customer will have to pay for them.

Under natural conditions the potted plants would grow to normal chrysanthemum height, but by use of carefully measured doses of chemical plants,can he restricted to a maximum growing height of some 18 in., which makes them a much more marketable proposition as decorative flowering plants.

Regular feeding will help, but,frequent potting on is the only real answer. However, this will result in having to use pots of “lite large proportion in a short space of time so it is often better to snip off brown leaf tips. Alternatively the leaves can be removed completely and no harm will be done as there is always a plentiful supply of new leaves if plants are healthy.

In time the plants will produce long, arching stems at the end of which new plantlets will form. These root very easily if pegged down into fresh compost, and are detached from the parent plant when they have developed roots.

They are very easily propagated from easily rooted cuttings, but they should he potted up with at least four cuttings to each pot in order to provide bushier plants.