Fortunella obovata 'Changshou'

Fortunella obovata 'Changshou' is the Changshou kumquat, the sweetest and most generous of the kumquat tribe, whose fruit swells to the size of a ping-pong ball, far larger than the little oval kumquats most people know. Round to gently obovate, ripening bright orange, that fruit is eaten whole, skin and all, the thin rind sweeter and more tender than any other kumquat's. A compact, dense, thornless evergreen, the Changshou is as pretty in a pot as it is productive.

The name Changshou means long life in Chinese, and this kumquat has long been treasured across China and Japan, where the plant also goes by the name Fukushu, as an auspicious potted plant carried indoors for the New Year. The broad, rounded leaves set the Changshou apart from the narrow-leaved oval and round kumquats, and the whole plant carries the glossy, tidy good looks that make citrus such rewarding container subjects. Small, white, sweetly fragrant flowers open in spring, sometimes again later, perfuming the air around them.

Kumquats are among the most cold-hardy of all the citrus, and the Changshou is no exception, taking cold that would harm an orange and holding evergreen through the milder South. Even so, this is citrus, and gardeners north of the warmest zones do best to grow the tree in a large pot that can shelter indoors when hard frost threatens. Give full sun, a free-draining soil, and steady summer water, and expect fruit young, held ornamentally on the branches deep into winter.

Woodlanders offers the Changshou kumquat as an uncommon fruit worth wider trial in the milder Southeast, a dooryard citrus as ornamental as it is edible. Grow the plant as a patio or courtyard specimen, an evergreen accent by a door where the flowers can be smelled, or a productive container tree, and enjoy the fruit fresh, candied, or in marmalade. Sweet, hardy, and handsome, the Changshou earns a place wherever citrus can be coaxed to grow.