Now I am very glad to be wrong on this topic - it's very good news to hear that breeders are actually focusing on taste. Jonagold is quite delicious. I read "The Fruit Hunters" and the author interviewed the Zeigers of Zeiger genetics. They admitted that most of the focus of their stone fruits has been on shippability, but they claim to now have changed their focus, and they are trying to improve on taste - the goal is to have a peach that tastes as good as the old heirlooms, but also ships well and stays good for weeks at a time. Yes, I am not sure I would even know how to grow apples on the East coast. I feel very fortunate to live in the Santa Cruz mountains, we have about the best climate one could ever ask for when it comes to apples. They are so tasty in my orchard, that is what got me so enthusiastic about apples. I spent years trying to grow all sorts of things from subtropicals like macademias to citrus and stone fruits. None rival the perfection of the apples in my orchard. We even get outstanding Summer apples because our Summers here (upper 60's to mid 70's daytime, mid 40's to low 50's night time in the middle of July and August) are equivalent to East Coast Fall weather. Our first apple to ripen is Anna around late May, and the last apple to ripen is Williams Pride in late January. Feb through April is covered primarily by storage apples. But we do get seasonal fluctuations here too that shift which apples end up tasting good. We get a period of hot Fall weather that - if it shows up too early tends to ruin the early Fall apples which seem not to like much heat. If the heat doesn't show up until October, then we get nearly perfect apples on all the varieties. Last Fall the Cox orange pippin harvest was ruined because the hot weather showed up at the end of August. They went mealy very quickly.

I'm sure that your plant is Poncirus trifoliata, called 'Flying Dragon'. It bears an extreeeemly bitter fruit, not really edible unless you want to make marmalade using about a bushel of sugar. ;-) I heard of a beverage recipe: one Poncirus fruit, a barrel of water and a bushel of sugar. lol I don't know of any other citrus that would survive in a zone 5 winter. Maybe others will have some ideas for you.

Fabaceae: I have the trifoliate-orange cultivar 'Flying Dragon'--about 4 ft high so smaller than the regular plant, columnar habit, with very contorted and twisted stems and branches. And savage thorns (citrumelo has inherited those.) The fruit is less than golf-ball size with a thick, hard rind and almost no pulp, just seeds. I'm not into sugary foods so haven't made marmelade, but have grated rinds for zest which is very bitter. Flowers typical for Citrus, highly scented. Ripe fruits are fuzzy yellow, not orange. In my book very worth growing. It flowers fairly late in spring so avoids heavy frosts (so far). For fresh eating I have two Meyer lemon trees and some kumquats. These are outdoors in summer and in the house in winter. Very reliable. I've tried many other citrus with less than satisfactory results. The citrumelos are in very large containers and have not flowered. Hopefully they will if they can get established in the ground. It'll be a learning experience. What citrumelo might do here is one thing--after 22 years here I have learned not to rely on horticultural information from "authorities" who have never gardened in the middle Rio Grande valley. This place lends new meaning to the whole shtick. By the way, I see that the new Flora of China has transferred the trifoliate-orange to the genus Citrus, making Poncirus trifoliata a synonym of Citrus trifoliata.

Jenny, that’s very useful, understand how the hardiness zones are calculated. Since my area has hot humid summers, I’m gonna guess it’s probably a lot like Virginia or the Carolinas? Crazy pest and mold problems here, but when things grow they grow like crazy. The weeds in the summer are like nothing I’ve ever seen. Yuzu was the first citrus people recommended for this area. Mikan (mandarins) were recommended too. The resprouting is kind of neat, and at least before the moles showed up, they had very extensive root systems, which should help with regrowth. I’m not expecting much or any fruit though, as there’s no leaves to support them, and all has to be regrown in one season. Not sure how useful that is. Thanks Cory. The last time I tried grafting I cut my thumb open in the grafts never made it anyway! Pon, I agree with you, it’s nice to use the passive heat systems. I’m still interested to experiment with some ideas. The typhoons really make it tricky here though, as things being blown away can be a bit dangerous. I don’t miss low temperatures like that anymore. I would have no problem moving to an even warmer area that I’m in now.