Johnorange, I am in the desert southwest, we had a very mild winter this year. I think we had maybe a week where it dropped into the mid-upper 30's at night here in December and that was as cold as it got. I'm not sure what zone you're in but normally my trees bloom mid march, they were a month early due to our winter. I also talked to some friends that work at the citrus variety collection at UCR and they too said their fruit on the trees wasn't ready for harvest and the trees were starting to flower early as well. Anyways back on topic, here is a pic of a monarch I believe? That I caught on my bearss lime tree that I planted in February this year. Evan This post was edited by evdesert on Fri, Apr 11, 14 at 9:37

Amy, no apologies necessary! I didn't think about it twice. I know some of those colors are all wrong. As I said, we were headed in the right direction, but we chose paint colors from strips with no sample jars first (did they even have sample jars in those days?) I remember knowing, somehow, that the area above the picture molding and the ceiling should be in the same family as the wall color but lighter, so we just went one up on the color strip for each. That pink is definitely a nightmare! Anyway, back to our current scheme...I've decided (with the help of BM color consultant) to use Ivory Tusk (one above Rich Cream) on the upper walls (above picture molding) and ceilings in each of the four rooms. That should add some cohesiveness to the floor plan. It also allows for some pretty deep, saturated colors below. Sorry for the confusion about the color in the entry room - the Meadowlark was really just an experiment to see if I liked the tone on tone - I happened to have it in the house. I have BM Dried Mustard up right now and really like it so I'm planning for it to stay. In the dining room (behind the entry room) I really wanted a gray-blue (BM Feather Gray) but not with my new color scheme - color consultant suggested Fiji (an aura color with very deep, almost teal undertones) and I absolutely love it, so it's staying. I like the way the Fiji blue looks in conjunction with the orange/brown of the Dried Mustard. Then in the living/family room (adjacent to the dining room) I put up BM's Tyler Taupe - it reads as a sort of brown and provides a nice neutral backdrop to the pink (purple?!) stained glass window in that room. I had to let the Anjou Pear go - as much as I like it on its own, I didn't love it in conjunction with my other colors or the trim. My big problem now is the front parlor with the white trim. I am torn between wanting a light color, to have that tone - on -tone thing that I love going in there, and thinking a deeper tone would flow better with the colors in the other rooms. I tried Concord Ivory - way too yellow/bright. On my wall right now are 3 samples: Rich Cream (which I love but it the lightest and yellowest of the three), Handmade (aura paint - reads peachy compared to the other two but on its own, it might look good adjacent to the Dried Mustard in the next room) and Blond Wood (reads like a dark beige or light tan - darker than I wanted to go, but definitely has more of an "earthiness" and I have to admit, it seems to relate the best to the surrounding Mustard and Taupe.) Thoughts? I feel that I should be veering toward gold undertones but every time I try something with gold in it I end up with way too much yellow. I am inclined to go with the Rich Cream simply because I love how it looks in that room, irrespective of the surrounding rooms. If anyone has any other suggestions, I am willing to give them a try - as long as they come in BM sample jars, lol - I am done buying quarts! I have heard good things about Carrington Beige and Malton. Also Ladyfinger - I didn't like the way it looked with my dark wood, but might be a nice neutral against the white trim?

In 2017, I planted 5 lemon seeds from a bag of sweet meyer lemons and they’re all varying in growth. The tallest one had some flowers in spring but nothing more. Long, sharp thorns on all of them and the trunks are getting thick. I’m about ready to puts them on the curb because they are tough to bring inside for winters. Is there any hope they will ever bear fruit?

Meyermike The reason your trees don't grow is because you are using rootstocks ment to dormantize the trees at first signs of cold. While that is great for zone8 up to 9, it doen't do us justice. We need rootstocks that grow far south so that our trees grow well into deep fall. We are going to take our trees inside anyway. My seed grown tangerine trees grow very well in cold weather. My meyer lemon tree from cuttings also grows well through the entire cold season. Some citrus trees do well in low light like my tangerine and kumquats enabling them to grow well in the cold. Meyer lemon do not handle low light as well and therefore grow slower. Get some tangerines and plant the seeds and use these for rootstock to grow your favorites on and you will be much happier with your citrus endeavor. I realize I live a full zone south of yours but my trees grow so well and fast because of the variety chosen,2 years 6 months 3 weeks from seed sprouting. She is 8 feet tall and has over 150 feet of total trunk, bran, and twig growth. It does most of its growing from October through April. The white at he bottom is Teflon tape over a grafting of bud from leaf node 102. This is where the thorns stop and flower may begin. All you need to do is cut your own scion and graft it your seedling tangerines. It will take 9 months to grow your stock to grafting size. Then you can brag that cold weather has no affect on your trees. My grapes are ripe, my figs are streaming in. My largest water melon is over 60 pounds and growing. It is a Carolina cross watermelon. Goose berries are done. Grape tomatoes are almost, sink is choked with chard and kale. My pears will start in a week or 2 and flow to September. My 6 foot diameter rhubarb plant keeled over this week. I'll replace it with a blue berry. If temperature stay above 0 F this winter I'll be swimming in peaches next year. My kiwis have now settle in and have main trunks to 10 feet to build a scaffold producing plat form. My citrus collection consists of 3 Sweetlee tangerine trees from seed, 2 Meyer lemon trees from cutting, 2 fukushu kumquats from seed, One Meiwa kumquat tree on Kuharske citrange rootstock and a New Zealand lemonade tree that originated at 4 winds and I have contacted them with question of its rootstock.