I have found the Bay Flora website and am considering buying a citrus plant from them this coming spring. Garden Watchdog reviews of Bay Flora service and product are awesome. Just wondering if any of you have purchased citrus from Bay Flora in the past and if your experience was as positive as the reviews of Bay Flora posted on Garden Watchdog. Thanks. Jerry

Wetsuitor: The only ones I dug up this year were 4 washies and a sago palm, each of which would take considerable protection here including heat. I will be leaving those in when they get 2 big to handle, but the washies seem to take root distubance very well and overwinter well indoors. There is of course some set back and it is slow to get growing in the spring, however I'm not ready to get into an elaborate heating system yet. I'm trying to work out my kinks this year on a trachy. Plus my wife would kill me if I had Jim's setup! I live in maybe the coldest winter 6a in America. This will be my 3rd winter here, the lowest low each of the past 2 years is -2, and -8F, HOWEVER, it is the norm to go 3 weeks at a time never getting above freezing. Last December and January, we had 9 days that got above freezing during the day, and most of those were in the 33-38F range for highs. We also had 2 3-weeks seesions of consecutive below freezing weather. The other problem is that I generally don't see grass from Dec.1 to mid-March, it never gets warm enough to ever melt the snow. Last year I lost 2 decent sized trachies and a sabal palmetto, and my minors and needle that survived received considerable damage, the minors burned 98%, the only things left were the emerging spears. Needle had spear pull with surving pups. That was with frost cloth wrapped unheated leaf cages, which provided 0-30% damage and no losses the year before.

Hey, if you go back out there or talk to her, you might refer her to a cool new website, ripenear.me. You can go in there and put what you're growing, and what is "ripe" now, and if you're giving it away or if you have a price on it, etc. They have lots of things available, and not many colorado gardeners have found it yet--I know that I'm going to offer up some tomatoes for trade when the time comes. She would probably get a few folks from the website, and certainly we should all go on there and put whatever extras we're going to have. Thanks for the heads up on her info--I may swing by sometime and see what she has. I could sure use some feverfew!

They like a slightly acidic soil, so it is fine. Tap water is very basic so having an acidic soil helps. The current canes are probably from last year. Limit new canes to 2 or 3 canes in a pot. Cut off any others. Don't let it produce a bunch of canes. It should fruit on any new canes in the fall. The first year it might be behind and the season runs out before berries ripen. This happens sometimes the first year. These plants can have two harvests, but since it is in a pot I would only take one harvest. 1st year canes (primocanes) produce a crop on the upper third of plant. if cane is left, it will produce a 2nd crop the next summer. I would advise in a pot to forgo this crop. It will be too crowded. So at the end of the season after fruit ripens in the fall. Remove all canes right to the ground. The next spring it will grow new canes and start the cycle over. If it has overhead protection leave the pot outside. Keep it moist not wet. I don't know where you are, so have no idea what winter advice to give. Right now I would let the soil become dry on top before watering. Don't over water.