Born and raised in northern IL, currently residing in central IL... we did pick up one gardening zone moving south a bit. I'd give anything to live in central coastal Cali, but I'd never get my husband to agree to moving. He claims to like the winters, and does have a good reason... the cold kills off a lot of bad things, and keeps nature genetically strong. I'll buy that, but I still don't enjoy the bone-chilling cold! I get chilled in fall and don't thaw until spring! And the older I get, the more the cold bothers me physically... I'm old enough to dislike winter! The only way we'd ever move to warmer climes would be if our children moved their families there first... only then would my husband agree to a move. So, it looks like I'm stuck gardening in IL... where I must emulate a warm climate to grow orchids and other tropicals, dragging them out for summer and back in for winter... but I do get to enjoy lilacs, peonies, tulips and other bulbs and plants that are deciduous or require a chill in order to bloom. I guess it's not so bad... we have white Christmases, germ killing cold, and can enjoy plants that need the lower temps... and summer brings all the warmth and humidity that makes the garden bloom so beautifully... It may make orchid growing a challenge... but real gardeners aren't afraid of a challenge, and in fact, we welcome the chance to prove our prowess! What the hey, my Epi is still alive... I must be doing something right! :-)

You will probably be able to grow only the hardiest of types outside, most of which are nearly inedible (Poncirus trifoliata and its "Flying Dragon" variant are often cited as hardy up to Philadelphia, and some hybrids of Poncirus or C. ichangensis might make it with a little help). Lowes and Home Depot sometimes carry flowering and fruiting plants--some people have waited many years for flowers and fruit on juvenile or seedling plants (see another recent thread)--grafting mature wood onto various rootstocks expedites the process greatly. Citrus is often dwarfed by grafting onto "Flying Dragon" rootstock--when pruning, remember that citrus only produces on new growth from mature wood. Some of the traditional suppliers might be out of stock due to restrictions on shipping citrus out of Florida at the moment--you might also check with www.mckenzie-farms.com in SC for information on both hardy and less hardy varieties. Four Winds and Harris Citrus are the traditional recommendations for mail-order citrus, and you might also check with Logees.com. Meyer or Meyer Improved should definitely be able to take 40F with no issues, and they all would probably be happier where they don't have to endure the low humidity of a typical heated indoor environment. Hope this helps, and good luck!

Dawgone, sorry if there has been a misunderstanding. I never insinuated, in any way, that you were calling me loony, nor that I thought you were loony. You're reading that into something that is not there. So please don't accuse me of reading between any lines -- that's precisely what you are doing. Rather, I was saying the idea that it is a person's individual right to do something (anything) that could do billions of dollars in damage to others, was a loony idea. I think 99.9999% of all thinking people would agree that that is the case; it would be insane not to. If I lived next door to you and decided it was my personal right to keep cobras in the back yard, without cages, I doubt that you'd agree that I had that right. We have kind of the same issue here. One person could endanger the livelihood of thousands. That is not acceptable in a civilized society, and so we deal with such situations with laws. As for the money issue, You are utterly wrong there. Money, big business, etc., are/were NOT in any way involved in these laws. If you believe that, fine; you are wrong. In many cases, the big growers don't like the laws as they stand, but they, too, have to abide by them. As for the propagation arguments -- Under strong Federal pressure (with good reason, I might add), the State has made the rule that all trees must be propagated under certified conditions -- where they can be inspected and tested regularly. No, the "big money guys" can't propagate plants outdoors either; EVERYONE, without exception, must use a certified, psyllid-proof, positive-pressure greenhouse system, which is the only know way to prevent the spread of greening. Now that I think of it, it really is not illegal for a back-yard gardener to propagate his own citrus; you do have the right to apply and become licensed as a citrus nursery. You have the right, then, to build such a greenhouse (at your own expense -- there are no subsidies for them), and you have the right to allow the State inspectors to arrive any time, unannounced, to inspect. Under those conditions, yes, you too could propagate citrus in your back yard. Nobody, no matter how rich or politically connected, has the right to propagate citrus by any other means. So you'd be right in there with the big guys. Why are we talking tristeza? It's not an issue at all, and has nothing to do with these laws. Greening and Canker are the problems here. Tristeza is not involved. And if you let home gardeners get certified budwood from the State to propagate at home, who, exactly, will pay to have those trees inspected every couple months as are all the nurseries' trees? Who will pay for all the book-keeping for potentially thousands of "nurseries" in back yards? Yet the state is fully expected (by those same home owners) to protect them from these very diseases. As for Home Depot and Lowes -- aphids are of no concern. Psyllids are. Trees being legally sold at Home Depot or Lowes were greening-free when delivered, and they almost certainly have been treated with a long-term systemic insecticide. We're lucky, here, in that psyllids are unusually stupid insects. They tend not to recognize trees enclosed by a wall or with a screened roof, etc. And most Lowes stores are not next to orange groves. So those factors lower the probability of spread. However, you are right that there could be a problem there -- the only solution may be to ban all public retail sales of citrus. (No, I'm not putting those words into what you've said; but if you consider Lowe's a problem, that is the only solution). As for your last paragraph -- that's quite astonishing. You talk about people getting mad and throwing verbal abuse, and in the next sentence, suggest that I'm in the pay of the dirty money you claim is operating here! Fascinating. So far, I have not accused you of corruption. Please explain how I am NOT being so-accused here??? I think, indeed, there are very hard feelings there. I'm not sure where the big chip on your shoulder came from, but I can tell you, as a Floridian (with citrus trees in my back yard), I am grateful that the State is trying to protect my trees and those of the industry. It is annoying to have to have tough laws, but those are not new or different; the USA is free of screw worm, brucellosis, and other agricultural diseases precisely because of such laws. Also in most States, kids don't go to school without a proper round of immunizations. Yes, there are those who fight that, and say it's their right not to vaccinate their kids; but wisdom concerning the common good tends to prevail in such cases. When it does not, people get hurt. I don't see any significant difference here.

. . . . "Host Plant Resistance Although there is no real resistance in Citrus spp. to citrus greening disease, some species and cultivars are somewhat tolerant. Koizumi et al. (1993) did extensive field surveys showing that some cultivars were less susceptible to decline than others. Most of the sweet orange trees became infected with the pathogen and subsequently declined, while grapefruit was more tolerant. In general, sweet oranges, mandarins and tangelos are most susceptible, grapefruit and lemon are more resistant, and limes, Poncirus trifoliata and citranges are the most tolerant (Lee 1996). Cultural Control Management of citrus greening in areas where the disease is endemic depends largely upon cultural control. Infected limbs and trees should be removed as symptoms appear. The pathogen apparently moves fairly slowly within the plant after infection, so severe pruning can be helpful. For African greening, Buitendag & von Broembsen (1993) make the following recommendations: If the infected tree is 5 years old or less, remove the tree. If it is between 6 and 10 years, remove it if it is 75% infected; otherwise remove branches. If it is more than 10 years old, remove affected branches up to 40% of the tree. Do not plant young resets in old groves affected by greening. The tendency for suckers that sprout after pruning to be infected with greening depends upon the diameter of the branches. Branches 10-19 mm in diameter grew no suckers. Among branches 20 mm in diameter or more, the smallest ones were most likely to produce infected suckers (86% for branches 20-29 mm, as compared with 29% for those that were 40-60 mm) (van Vuuren 1993). Roistacher (1996) cited a Chinese program for rehabilitation of citrus in Fujian Province in which cultural control played a major part. Windbreaks were established to protect plants from psyllid vectors (although the efficacy of barriers for protection from a persistently transmitted pathogen is questionable). Trees were examined regularly for citrus greening disease, and all infected trees were immediately removed and replaced with healthy trees from a certified citrus stock program at the Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences (Ke & Xu 1990). In another Chinese program, part of the control program involved hand-removal of summer flush in high density citrus plantings following rice cultivation (Aubert 1990b). " Here is a link that might be useful: Some tolerances to citrus greening