My house is never over 60 degrees in the winter unless we have guests. Fairly ‘yankee’. The trees are fine, now that I have all of the right fertilizers thanks to HQ, my trees are great. I only have to watch for scale. And yes, my house becomes a greenhouse. Not bad eh? Ever cost out a greenhouse? A pretty one?
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I wasnt advocating straw as insulation alone. Heck thats not good enough even for here. We always use a heat source inside.
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Us country boys don’t need pretty. Just something that works. People grow citrus in setups way cheaper than mine.
And when you add up all the sprays and critter controls nothings cheap or easy. My greenhouse isn’t that expensive when everything is factored in. Like ~10x greater yield than outdoors with little pest pressure and no critter issues. Around here for stone fruit production outdoors is so unreliable you can spend a lifetime just figuring out which varieties work and taste best. In my greenhouse I can evaluate a variety in three yrs from planting. 40 yrs outdoors and I still don’t know what works best except it’s not stone fruit. I basically have no favorite stone fruit varieties outdoors after all that time. Apples and pears yes because they fruit 2 yrs out of three not one in five.
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Fruitnut,
Every so many years we go through rapid weather changes that like your weather always keep us guessing.
I’ve always been curious how they’re able to grow citrus. I did a semester abroad in college outside Berlin (in Potsdam) and the nearby palace had an old orangerie. At the time, knowing nothing about growing fruit and being from California it didn’t strike me as odd. However, since I’ve been having difficulty with growing citrus along the SF bay, it’s struck me as particularly curious that they had any success in Berlin’s frigid winters.
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Then it was probably a water issue. I’ll probably buy another next summer when HD gets them in stock again. They usually have a decent selection.
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My house (greenhouse) already exists and didn’t cost me an extra cent. My dining room has an aroma of heaven when my citrus is in bloom. And many people like pretty as an add on to their property. Fruitnut, have you been to farmers only.com? LOL 
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I have 3 poncirus in the ground here in Michigan. My largest one is about 5 feet tall. It loses its leaves and with the exception of the past 2 winters (which had lows of -12 & -10) it has had no dieback. The smaller 2 have had some dieback even in warmer winters, but that might also be due to sighting (salt burn due to sidewalk)
I have not yet had any flowers on these.
I have a Meyer lemon and a finger lime in pots and they spend winters indoors. The lemon is currently flowering and has fruit on it from last year. The lime bloomed this summer but has not yet set any fruit (and I want to know what color it will end up being)
Scott
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The lime will be green.
Mrsg47. Finger limes are generally dark green to black on the exterior, the interior color can range from yellow to orange, red, green or even champagne colored. That’s where my curiosity lies…
Scott
Mine is green on the outside and yellowish on the inside.
How big is yours and do you have just the one? Mine bloomed heavily and I thought the blooms left behind the start of little fruit, but nothing developed.
Mine is in a big pot and the plant is probably about 4 feet tall and the stem diameter is about 3/4ths inch at the base.
Super clean and healthy foliage. Tiny purple flowers when it does bloom and at one point it had about 50 blossoms at a time. It seemed to bloom 3 times this summer.
Tha you
Scott
your poncirus cultivars are as tough as nails, and in michigan of all places! Given your luck, it doesn’t sound too far flung you could push your limits with calamondin and kumquat grafts on your trifoliates, as those are the closest things to the cold-resistance of trifoliates.
may not be in the league of valencia oranges, but it is safe to say they are much better than trifoliate fruits for cooking/seasoning/zests(calamondin), or fresh-eating(kumquat).
mondins are also neat, dense plants, and also has the same perfumy blossoms as oranges.
and the variegated type is quite attractive, on top of being a heavy producer of zesty little tangerines for seasoning
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What fertilizer is that?
Love the banana in the background!
And the chameleon, too.
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Dyna-Gro and Osmocote Plus.
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madagascar?
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Lake Kivu region of Rwanda.