Limousin, France

Q1

I have a lemon tree which I keep indoors in winter. This winter it lost most of its leaves (why?) so I pruned it right back. Now it is looking extremely healthy, new branches and leaves, flowers and tiny green lemons. The problem is that the lemons don't grow into fruit – some disappear and the others just stay as they are. Any ideas?

Q2

I'm trying to grow trees from seed without much success. I have an electric propagator which keeps a pretty steady temperature (20-25c), sits in a light position (not direct sunlight) and the trays are filled with good seed compost and sit on a layer of sand which I water a little every day. I also give the suface a daily light spray. Before sowing I gave half of the seeds a 24 hour soak in warm water, the rest were sown dry.

A month has passed and practically nothing has happened. Treewise there are Empress, Crape Myrtle, and Acer Japonica. There are also Trumpet creepers and Ricin.

Out of 25 Ricin I got 4 plants. There are no Acers though I previously managed to get 2 out of 25 or so seeds. No Crape Myrtles at all. There may be one trumpet creeper (out of about 50), this looks a bit like a basil seedling on a long stalk, is that one?

The only possible succes may be the Empress trees but they are tiny sedlings (about 10 or so) which at least all look the same, so suck it and see.

Where am I going wrong?

Ged Wallis

• 9 Jul, 2011