Research on and maintenance of the modern-day citrus collections in Germany and Austria

Abstract

Since the first evidence of oranges, citrons and lemons in the Royal Garden of Ferdinand I of Habsburg, Prague Castle, in 1538, citrus culture has been an important element of aristocratic courts and wealthy bourgeois palaces. The popularity of citrus plants, especially in the 16th and 17th centuries, resulted in the development of cultivating methods, garden tools, hibernating buildings and professional specialisation in the field. But citrus plants were also used in courtly representation a...