How to grow and care for citrus trees in the UK

Watch our popular video on looking after citrus and learn how to get the most from these rewarding plants.

Citrus Care through the Seasons

Citrus are fabulous plants and rewarding gifts but if you want them to thrive in the UK you need to pay attention to a few simple principles as they will need different care throughout the year.

Winter Citrus Tree Care

The most common cause of problems in winter is over watering. Read our handy guide to looking after and getting the most out of your citrus trees in our British winter.

As the days get longer your citrus trees will need more water, make sure they are placed in a position where they can get plenty of direct sunlight on the leaves to generate lots of gorgeous scented Spring blossom. Read our handy guide to looking after your Citrus trees in Spring to ensure a bumper crop later in the year.

Summer Citrus Tree Care

Citrus trees love a summer holiday, if you can, get your citrus outside on a sunny patio or sheltered spot in the garden to make the most of the UK summer. Citrus trees grown in pots need a surprising amount of watering in the summer months, find out how much water and how often as well as other top tips in our handy guide to summer citrus care

Autumn Citrus Tree Care

As the nights get cooler and the temperatures drop it's time to ease back on watering and consider bringing your citrus trees inside. Read more about our top tips for caring for your citrus trees in Autumn.

General Citrus Care

More detailed information on positioning, feeding, pruning and repotting.

Troubleshooting

As well as these handy guides and videos we do also include an A4 set of care instructions with all our citrus trees, giving extra detail about that variety and size or age of plant. If you are struggling at any time with pests or leaf drop please do get in touch by email or phone and our knowledgeable nursery team will do their best to help.

Or of course you can refer to our handy trouble shooting articles below...

Top tips on pruning Frost damaged citrus trees

Unexpected or harder than expected frosts can catch out the best of us. But don't panic yet, follow Emily's advice on pruning damaged citrus trees to encourage a full recovery. Whether your tree caught a bit of tip damage in a cool greenhouse, or a heavy bout of snow outside - follow these top tips to ensure your citrus has the best chance of recovery

Have you noticed purple leaves on your citrus

Like many plants, citrus trees will sometimes respond to growing conditions by producing deep purple or red leaves and this colouring actually helps protect the young leaves from sun damage - almost like a natural sunscreen.

Treat Early for Pests

We often get asked about the best, natural treatments for common pests on house and garden plants and in particular about mealy bug and scale insect so we've put together this handy guide to treating for pests using our preferred method, diatomaceous earth. We'll be expanding this section on plant care over the coming weeks so please do reach out if there are topics you'd like us to cover.

Plants4Presents - The Citrus Specialists

The calamondin Citrus tree was one of our first gifts back in 2004 and since then we have expanded our range to include over 25 different varieties of citrus in many different sizes. We now sell over 5, 000 lemon trees and nearly 10,000 citrus trees in total a year to homes up and down the country, so we've learnt a thing or two about their care both from our own experience at our Sussex nursery and from listening to our many happy customers.

These citrus care guides aim to bring this knowledge together to help you get the most from your citrus trees at home.

We'll be adding more articles to this page over the coming weeks and months but if you have a question in the meantime, then please do get in touch with our customer care team at the nursery and we'll always do our best to help.

You can browse our full range of citrus trees available either as gifts or a treat for yourself here.