Hi, I know this is an old post, but I wanted to mention that I bought a small clump of lemon grass at the nursery this spring and it turns out, it is not the kind that you find in Asian cooking, but another kind. I think this one is edible, too, but wasn't what I was looking for. I stopped at the local Asian grocer and bought several stalks of the lemon grass they had and it didn't have any roots on it. When I got it home, I trimmed the looser leaves from the stalks and then stuck them in about an inch of water in a small bucket and left them under the shade of the fig tree out front. In about 4-5 days, the stalks started to sprout roots and are anxious to get those roots into some soil, so I will now pot them up and see which ones do the best. noss

i think i read somewhere that 'sunkist' is a brand, not the actual name of the lemon type. someone more experienced will probably be able to shed some light on its real name. if they are meyer lemons, i dont think they grow true from seed. but yes, you can grow them from seed. they need to be planted when harvested - if they dry out they will die. i keep mine in water overnight then rinse any residual lemon flesh off them (the glucose attracts fungal infections) and put them in a free draining potting mix. i currently have four seeds from a shop-bought lemon, four harvested from my own meyer lemon, 2 grapefruit and 4 mandarin. still waiting for them to germinate, but i have hope :) keep them moist while germinating, but certainly not wet, and dont let fungus settle on the soil if you can help it. they need lots of light when young, but introduce them to it gradually. what you will get is a nice young plant, probably with a lot of thorns. they will flower and fruit (if they are not sterile seeds, always a risk) but seedlings have an extended juvenile period - about 5-6 years for a lemon i think, but dont quote me on that! i think a lot of citrus are true from seed, meaning they taste the same as the parent i think....a bit shaky on that issue! but meyers dont. might end up with a nicer fruit, or an awful one! in terms of pests and disease...well, trees we buy are usually grafted on rootstock that are strong against pest and disease, so it might be slightly more vulnerable - in terms of disease try to be careful of fungus in the early stages. pests being pests may be a problem at some point, regardless of if it is a seedling or grafted stock. growing from seed is a very rewarding thing to do. i dont expect perfect plants from my seeds - i row them for the love of growing. if the juvenile period of a lemon is too long, try a mandarin, theyre about 4 years to flowering i think, or a key lime which i believe may be 1-2 years before getting flowers. would love a key lime seedling, but cant find any key limes or seeds here in england!

I can tell you about the ones I've grown, though my climate is much different from yours. When you think about what to plant with rosemary, look for other woody, drought tolerant Mediterranean herbs. Lemon grass, being an Asian herb, needs much more water. I've planted mine (started from grocery store stalks) in between the artichokes, and here and there in places with varying degrees of available moisture. The ones growing best are in gallon hydroponics pots inside a trough that gets afternoon shade and an inch or two of bottom water a day. Lemon Balm very does well in shallower containers and full sun. This is another plant that I grew to the point of being rootbound, before dividing, and ended up with 4 or 5 plants from one start. It is drought tolerant, but like all herbs, it likes drainage, and grows better with regular water and haircuts. Lemon Verbena wants warm, warm, warm weather. I don't know how it overwinters in your zone, but probably not at all well. I keep watering my last year's (maybe dead) LV that i left in an unprotected outdoor container because we are still having cool nights and the plant SEEMS to be well rooted. At least it doesn't come up when I give it a hard yank, but it's not showing any life at all. This plant is so temperature sensitive that it will drop all its leaves at any sudden change, but will come back once the temperatures stabilize. If you have that problem, don't worry. if your plants are looking differently sick, then worry. If the root ball seems overly moist, try repotting to a dryer mix. If you want to keep the plant around next fall, do what I should have done and clip it down 2/3, bring it inside and let it redevelop as an indoor plant. Or take some growing tips and root them in smaller pots. But, alas, I haven't met Sweet Cicely yet. jan

Actually, all you need to do for a lemon tree is plant it in loose soil, water the soil lightly, and stick it in a ziplock bag. See this thread: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/trees/msg111341588777.html That lemon tree is mine. I grew from seed. All I did was (STEP BY STEP leaving out absolutely NO information) 1) I grabbed the seed from a lemonade drink made from a lemon bought from a lemonade stand, this past summer 2) put the seeds in a cup of water. All of them sank(sadly, I have no clue where they are now) 3) Placed them in a container somewhere (except for 6) 4) took that plastic cup and cut some holes in the bottom 5) put soil (which turned out to be harder than rock when watered) inside the cup 6) stuck the seed in the cup 7) watered the soil lightly 8) stuck the seed in a plastic ziplock baggy 9) put it on the counter 9) Forgot it was even there About 2 weeks later, I said "OH CRAP! AM I TOO LATE? IS IT DEAD? I CAN'T BELIEVE I FORGOT ABOUT IT!!! OH MY GOSH, PLEASE DON'T BE DEAD! PLEASE DON'T BE DEAD!!!" After panicking and looking for about 20 minutes, I finally found it buried under a lot of crap. I looked into the bag and I'm thinking, "Awwwwww!!!! It's so cute!!!" There was a little lemon tree with it's first two leaves sprouting. After I saw that, I stuck it in the windowsill where it's currently working on it's 5th leaf while finishing up it's 4th. It's the most beautiful thing ever. I would've increased the germination rate though to all six seeds instead of 1 of 6 if I had followed the directions provided online though(nick the seed coat and all that other stuff). But really, just planting the seed and forgetting about it for about 1-2 weeks seemed to work fine. I probably just got lucky though.