Where to Buy a Meyer Lemon?

question:
I was wondering if you had advice about where to get citrus trees in NY, either in Brooklyn or Manhattan. I'm looking to get a meyer lemon tree. If you don't know a particular business, but have advice about resources to plant businesses in NY, I would appreciate your help.

Answer:
Especially this time of year Meyer lemons can be pretty hard to find here in the city. In the winter, even kept indoors, citrus trees require a lot of sun and humidity so I'm not sure of who would risk carrying them this time of year. If you ask around you might find that some vendors that typically carry them will not have them again until April or May. That being said, here are my recommendations. Just because I love to walk around there and see what people have I might try a search in the Flower District, 28th Street west of Broadway to 7th Avenue. Many will probably have an ornamental citrus called x Citrofortunella microcarpus, also called a calamondin, but perhaps you can ask if anyone could order a Meyer for you. Then I would try calling Chelsea Garden Center, with locations in Manhattan and Red Hook, and Dimitri's Garden Center, now up in the Bronx. They are the larger garden centers in the city and as a bonus if you are an HSNY member you get a discount on purchases (10% at Chelsea, 15% at Dimitri's). I don't know if you have a car, but a coworker from Jersey swears that Metropolitan Plant and Flower Exchange in Fort Lee, NJ, have most everything. In fact he just called and they told him that they will not carry citrus until April, which in part led to my earlier comment. Good luck and let me know if we can help you further.