Thank you so much for the advice. I actually did some already, but I really feel like I went easy. I just kept thinking, well...if it needs more, I'll do it next year. I mostly took off little brittle pieces and ones that were crossing like you suggested. I probably spent an hour at least just going over each limb. I think I was able to tell more and more as time went on which branches were old and which were new. I figured all those old twigs and such were just taking up space that the fruit could grow and light could come in. I did take off a couple pretty hefty branches right in the middle, (by hefty, I mean I had to use the saw, about 1 1/2" in diameter) to allow more sun in. I won't do any more and will hope and pray it survives it's pruning!! Thank you again for the advice!

Hi Brit, When I want to move a plant, but am afraid of it getting scorched in the hot sun, I create a temporary sun shade for it. Sometimes I've created mini burlap tents/tarps attached to stakes or I've even simply propped a shovel up infront of the plant to protect it from the harshest rays of the sun. Someday I'll get smart and remember to save those old broken umbrellas! ;) I keep the shade up for a week or two. But, my best advice for moving plants in hot sunny times is to cut back as much foliage as possible, especially with Russian Sage. That way the plant can concentrate on restoring/repairing it's root system until it's adequate enough to support the foliage and foliage growth. Think of it as balancing the photosynthesis process between water uptake ability and sun processing. I hope this helps!

Vera during the day the laundry room is pretty bright until about 2 or 3 in the afternnon as it is on the east side of the house so it gets the first light of day. The temp in there stays about 70 and occasionally a little warmer if I am doing lots of laundry but probably no warmer than 75 degrees. This is actually a slow growing shrub. Growing in a container it will stay smaller (2-3 ft. tall and about 2ft. wide) than if grown in ground (4-6ft tall and probably 3 ft. wide). It is very easy to grow from seed and can be pruned to grow more as a small tree or trained as a bonsai. Penny

Hi Saintpfla Since you probably heard all the possible answers on your citrus problems, I am going to tell you what I know and saw at Echo last time that I was there in the tour for the fruit trees and people asked the same questions like you did. The expert planted the tree for demonstration in a mound, he said so the rains don't flood the tree. Made a hole without amending and put the tree in, situated so it looked the best and then added compost only on the sides. The older citrus trees had a big mulch on the sides but without touching the trunk (important) a lot of people asked about this and he said is okay. After that he went on to the bugs that affect the citrus like thrips and he said this year with the cold they had not much problem but otherwise they spray some sort of oil, somebody asked neem? and he said no, he did not give the name because I don't think is available for us. Now I have my private story to tell you, just remember I am no expert. I had wonderful citrus in Arizona, never had a problem or bugs or disease, did not even look at them and they had a crop that I had to give it away. They had small rocks underneath because I xeriscape in my yard. Now when I came to this house I bought some citrus, few of the same varieties like my neighbor, I only found that out when I went to visit her place because she asked for help with the citrus. I went again recently and 2 of her trees are dead and the same 2 of mine are still alive. I went over what they do and what I do, and this is what we did differently, she fertilize with some sort of spikes, I use the Sunniland brand for citrus. When we got hit with the winter, I cover just the trunks of the trees, she only covered the tops. Sometimes when I spray the tomatoes, I will use the leftover spray on the citrus, she does not use anything because she said some expert told her the damage of thrips is only cosmetic. If you try to foliar feed when is not hot just early morning or evening there is a chelated citrus nutritional spray by Southern Ag that you can get I think at HD. I hope that you get your citrus back to health and producing for you. Silvia