There is an orange tree in my backyard. A fairly rare occurrence this far north, I enjoy it as much for its rarity as for its beauty.
I sprouted the seeds from a grocery-store orange on my kitchen windowsill in Smithville, Texas sometime between 1988 and 1992. I brought a fairly large and thorny houseplant with me when I moved here in 1993. Finally, the tree became too big and stickery to move into and out of the house with the seasons, and we chose a sheltered location on the south side of our house and hoped for the best that it would survive on its own.
