I recently found an article in the Guardian about a book of 17th Century paintings of citrus fruit : “JC Volkamer, Citrus Fruits” by Prof Iris Lauterbach, due to be published by Taschen in early December. JC Volkamer was a keen gardener and real citrus enthusiast at a time when the genus was relatively unknown in Northern Europe. In 1708 he commissioned 256 plates of 170 varieties of the fruit, now showcased in this book.

One of the noticeable things about these paintings is the thickness of the pith in many of the varieties. It reminded me of a large native to Asia variety lemon we saw on a visit to Wisley earlier in the year. The fruit are massive, but surprisingly the extra bulk is made up entirely of pith - the edible fruit section is the same size as a normal lemon. They make beautiful specimen trees.

I grow a couple of varieties in the garden:

• Meyer lemons (Citrus x meyeri) are sweeter than other varieties (a mix of lemon and orange) and perfect for gin and tonic. They are hardy to -8 degrees but thin skinned, so do not travel well.

• Eureka Lemon (Citrus x eureka) is a nearly thornless tree that flowers and fruits all year round. This is a “true” lemon with few pips and is hardy to -5 degrees.

While the plants survive cold temperatures, it can reduce flowering, so keep them in the sunniest, most sheltered position in the garden for a regular supply of fruit. The lemons can be “stored” on the tree for a few months when ripe.

Citrus trees make great decorative features. We used lemon trees as an improvised table centre piece at a Christmas wedding last year. Plants4Presents provided the heavily laden trees in their silver buckets and we added some mistletoe as a festive touch. They looked beautiful, and are now growing very happily in pots in the garden.

One odd encounter with lemons was in my parents’ garden in Auckland, New Zealand. They would regularly find skinless fruit on their lemon trees: a perfectly shaped fruit with the yellow skin nibbled off, leaving just the rind and the central fruit behind. It took a while to work out that it was the local possoms helping themselves, removing the sweeter skin, but finding the rest too tart. Perfectly formed skinless lemons hanging on the tree make a strange sight.