Oh, no, the Clemnules will do better than any lemon, Carol. Manadarins all in general are more cold tolerant than most lemons (maybe with the exception of the Improved Meyer lemon). You won't need to baby the Clemnules, but you will have to think about where you place that Variegated Pink Eureka. It is variegated, so that's the fist thing you must take into consideration - hot afternoon sun may burn the leaves. Secondly, it's a lemon and not as cold tolerant. My Clemnules also came through that cold snap just fine. And yes, having some time for citrus to get used to cold temps by hardening off (the best that they can), will certainly bode better if you have a serious cold snap. Where you can get in trouble with citrus and cold temps is more in the early spring, when everyone has had a bit of a warm up, sap starts flowing, you start to see a flush and buds, and then you get a wicked cold snap. That's when we and commercial orchardists get worried about cold damage. Patty S.

Erin, are you saying your dogs use your plants as well, a fire hyrdant? Backyard? If so, keep your citrus far away from your furry friends. Pet's can really get into trouble, I know..My dog, an English Mastiff, doesn't really bother my plants, but I've caught him outside, ripping ferns out of the soil. I planted 4 banana trees in the back yard this spring, and 2 mysteriously disappeared. I don't know if he got at them, or our squirrel foes. I do not like squirrels. (S) If you find your dogs wee-weeing in the soil, I suggest you leach them. Urine can burn roots. Since I'm in Il, z5, winters turn arid, especially once the heat is turned on. Your best best is to buy a humidifer..standard size. Home Depot sells standard humidifers from 99-129.00..it's worth the investment. Misting foliage helps and so do pebbles as Pelham stated. Change filters on humidifer, otherwise it's just wasting electric. Sun is important, or however much you get where you live..Last winter was the worse ever here in IL. I lost plants because of the dark. Old plants, over 10 yrs old. Last Sat we went to HomeDepot and bought a flourescent light fixture that'll hold two bulbs. I'm going to buy one warm white and one cool white. The area in which my window faces is south and east. I plan on running the lights via a timer which is another great investment. Also, since I'm in Il, I stop feeding in Oct..Actually, last year I gave my citrus a dose of Osmocote fertilizer as a last feeding..Plus I used Fish Emuslsion on leaves as a foliar insect repellent. Worked like a charm...before that, I didn't feed anything after Oct. I find this especially important if winters are dark. Of all I read on the subject, feeding plants where winter light is lacking will only grow spindly growth. I find this to be true. Pelham has a point about the cold,too..I keep most of my citrus in a small gh in winter, the rest come indoors..the gh can get quite cool during the coldest nights of winter, so that's another reason I stop feeding. One more important issue is watering. You do not want soil to stay wet..It's important citrus get a hearty drink, enough until water seeps out of drainage holes, but soil should dry between waterings. Too much water and you have to worry about rot and insects, such as fungus gnats, (for one.) That's all there is to it..Toni

Northbay, So far, they have all recovered. That is balanced by managing to make some plants look bad that were perfectly fine when I bought them. I haven't killed one yet but a few came close. This Cocktail Grapefruit was bought at Armstrong for $7. I was almost as sad as your Lemonade when you bought it. I think it had 5-6 leaves on it. You can see a couple leaves I managed to burn with too strong foliar fertilizer. It is a learning experience. The green reflection in the pool is the original Valencia that was almost dead from ivy covering it. After 12 years of recovery, it is finally making good oranges. Isn't this fun? So different from administering business computer systems. At least the plants don't work at destroying themselves like my customers do with their computer systems.

@GregBradley: Thanks. Johnmerr made a similar point about my lawn possibly imposing harmful effect on my citrus trees. This is new info for me...Thanks. FYI, I use the black rings to keep the grass away from the tree truck, and not to keep the mulch around the tree. The ring also acts as a bumper guard for my lawn mower:). Also, in the photo you may have noticed the gray PVC trunk guard around the base of the tree used to protect it from my weed wacker. Now that I think back, several weeks before my Variegated lemon tree started to loose it's leaves, I did some heavy de-thatching on my lawn. After removing the thatch, I've been trying to bring the greenness of the lawn back with applications of lawn fertilizer (high nitrogen) every 3 weeks, and watering via sprinkler twice daily. In conjunction with the above, we've been had some heavy down pours caused by a passing hurricane. So as you said, it's most likely a combo of those factors (water, drainage, fertilizer, weak cultivar) coming together wrong for the lemon tree. Think I'll do as Johnmerr recommends, and see it shows any signs of coming back. If it don't, I'll replace it with something else. May even switch to planting a pomegranate tree. Aloha, Gadget