Looks perfectly healthy to me. Trunk is just fine. No need to dust leaves, just spray it with the hose outside, citrus love to have their leaves rinsed off. It will flower and fruit, eventually, it is still in a recovery phase from losing leaves over the winter. The new leaves will always be lighter green, that is perfectly normal. This appears to be a perfectly normal and healthy tree, Suzy. Patty S.

You may have been lucky! The key question is: Does the ground freeze in the winter where I live? If it is an unqualified yes then you are lucky and in a hard winter you may have lost quite a few. If the ground doesn't freeze then just mulch them with 4-6" of something like leaves or pine straw. I talked to a fellow one time that lived in Central Ohio and didn't dig his dahlias but he mulched them with a couple of feet of leaves. So they can stay in the ground if you do it right to prevent them from freezing. Storing dahlias inside can cause dahlias to shrivel or rot if you don't use proper techniques so you must select one where you can be successful. Check out the Dahlia Society of Georgia web site menu item Dahlias That Grow Well in the South which discusses one and gives a website for another. Here is a link that might be useful: Dahlia Society of Georgia

I only need to get the pictures uploaded to snapfish... it's possible the bowl of the boy's is going to be not grouted...we don't know yet, cuz court is in an hour and a half..it'd be a fine bowl, as is..... I need to leave in a few minutes, to the juvenile court house...if his mom gets custody, they will be leaving for Oregon this afternoon. this girl/lady is the same age as my oldest daughter..eleven days apart and is the daughter of a friend of mine, that I've known for 40 years... my friend lives in Corpus Cristie and advised her to call me, when she was at the CPS office, here in town and needed a safe place, right then...man, expedited background checks and a visit from the case worker and CPS case worker, here at the house and my place was approved, right there on the spot... ( I swear, they must have had blinders on...lol cuz my place is filled to the rafters with art supplies and not a lot of space to do any square dancing, in my front room!!) that was last Monday..and here we are, 11 days later and the future is unknown for them but it's a new beginning, either way... Zach went through trama and I watched a transformation, while he worked on his glass piece.. here, on this forum, we all talk about how doing mosaics is a healing process.. Zach got a broken finger, when he blocked a blow to the head, when his dad was beating him up... the dad had also taken everything important to Zach, including little clay pieces he had made, from first grade on...the kind made in the classroom, with clay, glaze and firings...all of his favorite games, his laptop (I think I mentioned he's 14 and is a very sensitive boy)and made Zach ride with him to the landfill...then threw all of his belongings in the dump and said he would have to work to pay for the trip to throw it all away... it was a cruel and needless assault on Zach, both physically and emotionally.... This week's journey helped him take something broken, both from himself and other things and make something beautiful from it.... he first walked in the house with a rather empty look in his eyes.. this morning he's full of hope... I only wish and pray the judge sees the same thing.... I have his bowl and some of my projects, in a display case right now, with an overhead light and it's so pretty... it's a 6 hour drive to where she lives and we've already been talking about her coming up to visit friends and an aunt, or me driving there for a couple days..but not in winter...I would take grout with me...lol the lexel is in a tube just like the GE11 and is 5 oz...it was under $5...I think it was like $4.85 or so.... it's a lot cheaper if it can be found in a 12 pack but then again, I'm not going to do that...lol it's gone a very long way, with just the 5 oz... the number on the tube is 13013, evidently to be sure which one it is, between clear or white or something... at least that's what I noticed, ....it's on the bar code and this one says 31525 13013 super elastic sealant it also says it sticks to wet surfaces...guess that would be in an emergency, to maybe fix an aquarium...?? I'd better be going now, to get to the court house...

@fortyseven_gw Hi Joanne. I'm going to leave the blooms on for just a little longer, as the leaves are starting to feel a lot better than before (they still need a little more time to recover, but they're doing better). If their condition worsens, or they just aren't making progress, I'll remove the blooms. I'm just not ready to part with them if the plant can possibly recover with them:( I've missed the spark of color they bring in, and they're growing quite fast already! @Rosie Wonderful! I took your advice on opening the bag and I feel it's good for the plants to get this fresh air! Yesterday, I left them open from dinner time to when I went to sleep. Left them closed while I slept, all morning, and for most of the afternoon. Just opened them and will probably leave them open until late evening/night time (or until I go to bed) depending on how the leaves feel.