Nothing Rhymes With Orange

Everyone knows that Christmas time is mandarin time. I love mandarins! Well, one day before Christmas, I walked over to our local green grocer (Quality Greens, if you’re interested) and discovered mini Honey Mandarins.

Mini. Tiny. Want to see some pictures? I didn’t take any but another blogger did. Go ahead. I’ll wait.

See? They’re tiny! Four or five of them will fit comfortably in your hand. And they’re just as tasty as the regular mandarins or satsumas.

So, where am I going with this, you ask? Christmas is over, mandarin season will be over before long. Well… these little oranges aren’t seedless. I decided to take a couple of the seeds and see if I couldn’t sprout them.

I carefully brought two seeds home (yes, we finished the entire box at work… so what?), wrapped in a paper towel. Once home, I moistened a paper towel (no, I drenched it!), folded it and placed it into a small Ziploc container, covered it and left it on my sideboard for a couple of weeks.

After about two weeks, I checked the seeds. One had turned an ugly gray colour, but the second seed still had it’s whitish colour and had a little white “bump” at one end. I disposed of the gray seed and left the other… until this past weekend.

Much to my surprise, this is what I saw…

To say I’m pleased would be an understatement! Now, I need to get it into a small pot and soil soon, I’m thinking. John will be heading to the college later today and I’ve asked him to bring me back some good potting soil, just enough to fill a small pot. Once the soil is room temperature, I’ll make sure it’s nice and moist and I’ll plant the seed, with some very wet paper towelling, and hope for the best.

If you’ve ever started an orange from seed and have some advice, I’d certainly appreciate it. For me, this is an adventure in gardening!