Why I’m Removing the Tiny Flowers from My Young Avocado Trees (Zone 10b Beginner Notes)

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So I noticed something on one of my avocado trees I just received the other day that honestly got me excited for about ten seconds.

Little green clusters all over the branches.

flowers on young transplated avocado

At first I thought, wait… are those baby avocados already?

Nope. Turns out those are flower buds, and a lot of them. The tree was clearly gearing up to bloom. Which is cool… except for one problem.

My trees are still babies, not even transplanted yet into containers.

And after doing a bit of digging and talking to people who grow avocados down here, I realized I should actually remove the flowers right now.

Which felt totally backwards the first time I did it.

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Can You Grow Lime Trees in Containers in Hot Climates? My Research Before Planting

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growing lime trees in containers in florida or hot climates

Why I Started Researching Lime Trees in Containers

Living in Southwest Florida, citrus seems like an obvious thing to grow. But after reading about the devastating pests and diseases that have damaged much of Florida’s citrus industry, I started to wonder if growing citrus successfully at home was even realistic.

Limes in particular — especially Key Limes — are a fruit I’ve always wanted to grow. They’re incredibly useful in the kitchen, and more importantly for me, they make some of the best margaritas I’ve ever had. Those little fruits pack a serious punch, and the idea of eventually having a few productive lime trees in my backyard was high on my list.

At the same time, I quickly realized my soil is extremely sandy. Planting trees directly in the ground felt like a big commitment, especially when I wasn’t fully sure how well citrus would perform in my yard.

So before putting anything permanently in the ground, I started researching whether lime trees could be grown successfully in containers instead.

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How to Propagate Cordyline from Cuttings in Hot Climates (My Southwest Florida Experience)

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why i tried propagating cordyline in southwest florida

Why I tried Propagating Cordyline in Southwest Florida

This past summer into winter 2025, my wife and I were renting a small home in Southwest Florida (Naples, to be specific). We had recently moved from Central Texas (Zone 9a) to Southwest Florida (Zone 10b) and were waiting for our new home to be completed in neighboring Bonita Springs.

I couldn’t do any landscaping at our new house under construction unless I wanted it destroyed by workers and heavy equipment. Knowing my desire to grow something wouldn’t be satisfied just sitting around, I decided to experiment with propagating some of the plants around our rental home — specifically Cordyline.

And hey… maybe it would save me a few bucks on landscaping later. (Answer below.)

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