Lemon trees in Portland, Oregon?

I'm pretty new to the area and have heard that one can grow meyer lemons here if you take them indoors in the winter. Does it really get hot enough here for citrus? Summer here feels so cool after living in the south. Not complaining! I love it....

Any suggestions on what fruit trees do well here and where to buy good stock, or where to learn more, would be appreciated!

If you want success with a Meyer's, you will need to put it in a pot that you can bring in for the winter.
Mine did fine, but not as much fruit as I would have liked - doesn't get hot enough here.

I don't really do fruit trees, but I can tell you that we are warmer here than Katye by a few degrees-we had two days over 100' in July. Our growing season here is also a little longer than Katye's. The trick is that we can also get nasty cold ice and windstorms down from Canada via the Gorge every once in a while. Everything will be fine and then suddenly one year you'll lose a bunch of stuff. It does depend where in Portland Metro you live on how exposed to them you will be, though. So, plan on a pot for the lemon trees!

You might want to get a copy of Sunset's Western Garden book-You'll find it a lot like the Southern Living Garden book, but it's for Western climates. Very helpful!

susybell and katye,thanks so much for the advice. I will try the pot idea -- we have a sunroom with a south-eastern exposure - maybe it can make it there in the winter.. Would be fun to try. I just bought a little fig tree and am thinking of espalliering (is that a word) it as soon as I have improved my soil a bit. I have a lot of clay that is like cement right now.

I do have the Sunset book and just love it. In fact, I love just about any gardening book. Especially those that address planting native plants, attracting birds, butterflies, etc. Any suggestions?

Uhm, let's see. You're making me think on a Monday morning!

Here's a few things to get you started. There are some great PNW gardeners on here that know tons more than I do, but these are some good classics. (after Sunset, that is, lol)

Steve Solomon, the guy who started Territorial Seed Co. has written a book called "Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades" that's considered a classic for this area. He's got 5 editions out now and a new one this fall.

I like the books by Ann Lovejoy-she's written a number of different books.

For native plants, one of the classic books is "Gardening With Native Plants of the Pacific Northwest" by Arthur Kruckeberg. It doesn't have great pictures, though. So, plan on getting a guide to plants for the PNW to help you identify them.
I like the one by Pojar & Mackinnon "Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast : Washington, Oregon, BC and Alaska".
There's also "Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest" by Mark Turner and Phyllis Gustafson. They include southern Oregon more than the other book, and it concentrates on wildflowers, so it's a good companion book.

Sasquatch Press and Timber Press are two companies to watch for. Sasquatch concentrates on regional interest and does a lot of gardening books. They publish Ann Lovejoy's books, and also Steve Solomon's, among others.
http://www.sasquatchbooks.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/SBBooks

Timber Press has some incredible garden books. Their catalog is wonderful!
http://www.timberpress.com/

I just got an email from Timber Press that all their books are on sale at 30% off through their website, with free shipping on orders over $50...oh, the temptations!

Hi lovedirtynails,

A great place to learn about fruit growing is http://www.homeorchardsociety.org, they hold a show twice a year, in the fall it is a great time to taste an enormous variety of apples and pears (last year I think it was 400 apple varieties and almost 200 pear varieties). You can of course only taste so many in a day :) Wonderful way to find a favorite apple to grow though.

We went last year, and aquired a Gold Rush apple, which is just about the best apple I have ever had - we also got a liberty because Gold Rush needs a pollinator, and Liberty is one of the pollinators for it. We got dwarfs, because of space limitations.

In the spring they have another event, where you can buy rootstock, and then get free varieties to graft onto the rootstock. They will graft for you, or teach you how.

A great source for native fruit and berries is One Green World in Molalla.

Gardeners Choice 14240 SW Pacific Hwy, Tigard This is a great nursery, with a large selection of plants.

Great things to grow here, other than apples: blueberries, currants, gooseberries, plums, pears. We are even trying a couple of Pomegranates, because we love them so. We'll try to find the warmest, sunniest spot for them and hope for the best. You are supposed to be able to grow some Pomegranate varieties here. I can't remember if we got ours from One Green World or maybe from Raintree...