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.

Linda, I am afraid that I have tried many applications of Meyers and never like the result, in complete contradiction to John and many others to me anything that has a Meyer in it would be better with a traditional lemon. Meyers have a "dirty" taste most of the time and at best have a weak orange flavor. I cannot tolerate drinking anything with Meyer in it, or any fresh application. I have made cakes, curds, pies, lemonades, fish with lemons cooked or grilled on top, etc with Meyers and never particularly like the result, though cooked they are more tolerable then anything with the fresh juice. However I had to toss out the salmon I made as the orange undertone flavor was awful. I just tried a jar of preserved lemons I made with Meyers and they were very bland compared to traditional preserved lemons. I keep trying to like them but I haven't found anything I prefer with them in it yet, mostly just things I find less offensive. I used to cook professionally and used Meyers pretty consistently in many applications and still never cared for them (same with kumquats though I REALLY don't like Kumquats and don't even want to try them in things anymore). I am pretty sure I am a traditional lemon kind of girl, which means more Meyers for the rest of you that like them! ;) Also I agree that its likely that your rootstock is taking over, cut off any branches that have different fruit and take note if the leaves look different in any way to your orange, that way you can identify it earlier and remove branches before they fruit and steal energy away from your oranges. Take pictures so if it happens again years from now you won't be struggling to remember what they looked like. Its likely that your neighbor had a tree whos scion died back/was taken over by its root stock at some point. If your friendly with them and they are the ones that planted the tree ask them what kind of tree it was when they planted it and if it changed at any point. If they didn't plant it they may not know. If you show us a picture of the tree we could help you figure out when to prune it.

That's why I love plants, all they need is a little water, food and a lot of sun. Don't create much of a fuss. I'm a bit of a misanthrope haha. Plants are good company.

Monica I bought a half pound box of Nagami kumquats at Kroger grocery. They were small and they had seeds. I did a years worth of research and decided to order a 10 pound box of Meiwa kumquats from Florida kumquat growers Inc. They were delicious and I planted 300+ Meiwa seeds. I also bought Poncirus Trifoliata seeds since my research showed that kumquats from seeds were a no go. Out of 300 seeds I had 2 plants left and one thrown into the compost heap as low quality. My 2 died and I rescued the compost victim. 1 years later it was clear that I could not graft to PT. I planted seeds and ended up with 4 sweetlee tangerine trees for rootstock. They grew very nicely and are the pride of my citrus fleet. My Meiwa died and that was the end of my citrus career. A friend moved and gave me her 2 Meyer lemon trees. They did well so I built a greenhouse and kept the tangerine trees and the 2 Meyer lemon trees. 2 of my tangerine trees tripled in size over winter into spring and the Meyers doubled in size. A friends gave me a grafted Meiwa kumquat and 2 seed grown Fukushu kumquat trees while another friend sent me The New Zealand lemonade tree, all mentioned above While doing all this I bought a fig tree and it took off and I have rooted over 30 cuttings that all produced figs. I can produce easily 500 to 2000 figs a year going into next season. The Hardy Chicago fig has been a real winner for me. This past year I harvested more figs than 5 apple trees of 20 feet. More than 17 full size peach trees 1 plum tree, 2 paw paw trees, 2 cherry trees, 7 blue berry bushes, almost as much as my black berries. At current I have a total of 6 citrus trees gifted to me and 3 tangerine trees from seed. All 9 are doing well#3 above is in ground #4 above is in ground I believe I know enough to get set up to produce most if not all of the citrus fruit we would eat in a year and do it cost effectively. I am there with the figs. Gardening is a labor of love. I will repeat that growing citrus trees take a real commitment to do well and is ONLY easy when the trees are not having problems. I will also say if you are growing for foliage then grow from seed from fruit. If you are growing for fruit start a bunch of trees from seed and learn on them for 2 years before buying a grafted tree. You get more fruit sooner if you blow 2 years growing from seed first as you go over the learning curve. I can say now I really enjoy my trees