There is an urban myth about all this coolness stuff for Cymbidiums. They like it cooler in winter, but you have to look at the total climate package. Anyway, looking at the background breeding of your Cymbidium, it has a so called warmth tolerant ancestor in Peter Pan. Warmth tolerant in the sense that the plant does not need the degree of "coldness" during summer nights to decide to flower. I hope you have got lots of snail and slug bait around the plant. Might be other pests in your area that love to eat Cym.buds. Next problem, do the spike hang down naturally or grow erect? I do not know ! If they want to grow down, best to let them do so. Next problem, when to provide extra warmth and shelter. probably when night temps start edging down to about 40F. Congratulations!. Hope all goes well and the local Cym growers add to this.

dan_keil_cr, In Jeff Gilman's new book "The Truth About Garden Recipes", he makes a few points about insect control, stating that garlic is more of a repellant than an insecticide that has medium term effect, say a week or two before you have to respray (unless it rains). The insects themselves will either leave your garden or go migrate to the leaves/buds/flowers you have missed. He strongly recommends that you use insecticidal soap to kill those insects you missed. Hot Chilli preparations either homemade or bought are particularly effective on mites as a repellant more so than an insecticide. He also likes the contact insecticide ingredient Acephate (not too tough on the beneficials with slight systemic activity), he does not like Imidacloprid for mites only (Bayer uses this in some insecticides) as it has been shown to actually increase the mite population, but could be used once to quickly wipe out an initial problem (some people have written it hurts bees but I have not seen proof of this). If you area is experiencing a drought it probable that all the gardens in your area are experiencing the same issues so spraying insecticides (a final resort) might only temporarily solve your problem as they will quickly return, maybe via your neighbors; thrips particularly are easily carried in the wind. One treatment might help to at least get it down to a manageable level or continued treatment with Beauvaria Bassiana fungus, if you can find it. If you can please let us know where you got it from. Thrips love drought especially plants that are drought stricken and thrips feed on mites, a veritable all you can eat buffet for them, mites and plants. One begets the other; similar to the Biblical plagues in Egypt; which in this case may be followed by diseased plants. In Whitney Crenshaw's "Garden Insects of America" he states that thrips are an important carrier of disease and are hard to remove from flowers and buds, so cutting them off when you initially spray may be a good idea. He further states that plants showing any sign of disease should be immediately destroyed. I am no expert on disease so you should discuss this with others more expert before you pull a plant. He feels sanitation of course is a key, raking leaves, etc., and that insecticides are a very weak second often being unsuccessful. Perhaps removing your current mulch and replacing it. And above all proper watering is the holy grail of control with this problem; watering washes thrips from plants and seals their pupal stages in the soil, which is why rainfall controls them. If your soil is not holding water well you might want to ask the soil experts what to do, mulch of course helps a lot. So it seems it might be solvable but will require constant vigilance and a lot of hard work spraying and making up your garlic preparations. One last note, home-made garlic preparations seem to work much better than store bought; you can buy no-skin cloves 3 lbs in a plastic jar from Costco. Store bought chilli concoctions seem to work better than home-made I do not know why. Hope this helps.

Liz, fertilized soil will not be enough for citrus. A couple of things - first off, I suspect your potting medium is too wet and soggy. I know you've repotted, but none of the container folks here like MiracleGro soil, it just compacts and doesn't breath well enough for citrus roots. If you search for "511" mix in this forum, you'll get a great container potting mix. MeyerMike can help you out with that for sure, his citrus do exceptionally well with 511 mix. Secondly, and due to that, I am suspecting you have something fungal going on. When you see round spots like that, it is almost always something fungal in nature. You don't need a microscope to see mites. I can see them with my 57 yo "mature" eyes :-) Mites give a very classic appearance to leaves, they look speckled or stippled. Your leaves are not displaying that at all. Black spots under the leaves sounds like Greasy Spot to me. You'll need to treat with an anti-fungal agent. Also, a tree that pours its energy into blooming, while failing is a tree that is in trouble. It feels that it is dying, so this is its last ditch effort to reproduce itself. More sunlight, better potting soil, switch to a better fertilizer with micronutrients like Foliage Pro by DynaGro may all help. The fruit that fell off looks like wind damage scarring. I would pull off all the other little fruit right now, and let's see if we can get your little tree to put its energies back into its canopy, instead of the fruit. Patty S. Here is a link that might be useful: University of Florida: Citrus Greasy Spot

Define 'large infestation' ;-) Do you mean where the buds and the leaves are literally obscured by and dripping with aphids? If so, I've had infestations like that, and Ladybugs took care of the problem without flinching. Generally, folks don't overwinter a great number of plants, and so the problem is usually much more manageable. If Ladybugs are an option in your area, I really feel they are the best option. Just spray off the plants to mechanically remove the excess aphids, and then loose the Ladybugs. In my experience, one Ladybug will clear a medium-sized plant. When I overwintered more plants, I would simply move the Ladybugs from one plant to another. The Ladybug larva are even more adept and voracious at aphid control. When the Ladybugs have done their work, I move them to my Hoyas, which are even greater aphid magnets. Josh