Commonly known as Lemon Bush. This aromatic plant starts easily from seed. When grown in a container, it only reaches 3 to 4 feet tall. No matter where you live, you can grow this lovely plant from seed in your own home and enjoy the fresh lemony fragrance. Its fresh and lemony aroma is uplifting and simply brushing the leaves will release more fragrance that will remind you of the citronella candles sold to repel mosquitos. Outside in warm zones, it will grow into a small tree, but is most commonly grown as a container plant in cooler zones. It produces sword-shaped gray-green leaves, tiny white blooms, and a bit of red fall foliage change. For growing indoors, find a nice container and grow from seed in a bright window. It can also be grown outdoors, but bring it in before the first frost to winter it indoors.
Oil from the leaves is applied to the skin as a medicine and insect repellent. Citrodora Ecalyptus oil is used for preventing mosquito and deer tick bites. It is also an ingredient in chest rubs used to relieve congestion. The oil has a strong fresh citronella-like odor with a sweet balsamic undertone. Very effective insect repellent due to a higher citronellal content than citronella ( which is commercially harvested from citronella grass, a different type of plant and is used in many insect repellants ). Eucalyptus Citriodora has good branching and makes an attractive container plant with wonderful citrus-spice fragrance. It is actually an herb, and its 3-inch leaves are bold and dramatic indoors, and the white summer blooms add another interesting dimension to this versatile plant. The plants are winter hardy in USDA zones 8-11, but can be grown as a container plant or annual in any zone.
Trees bloom in winter in outside in warm zones, in the greenhouse they bloom in late winter to early spring. The white blooms are not very distinctive. The blooms are followed by woody urn-shaped capsules about 3/8 of an inch wide.

Eucalyptus citriodora need full sun with a well-drained soil mix for container growing. Most gum trees grow in very nutrient poor soils and fertilizer is not needed; however container plants should be feed once during the spring. To control the size of the trees in containers, do all pruning and repotting in late to early spring after flowering.
How to start seeds and grow: Start seed indoors into a starter tray. ( We like to leave seed packet in the fridge for 30 days before sowing, this seems to enhance the germination ). Press the seed into the soil and cover lightly, about twice the thickness of the seed. Keep the seeds moist by watering from underneath. Once the seedlings are 4 to 5 inches tall, transplant into containers. Start with a 1 to 2 gallon container with potting mix and after a year or so, transplant into a larger 3 to 5 gallon container. Feed monthly during the growing season with water soluable plant food or mix granular 5-10-10 fertilizer with micronutrients into the soil each year.