Owari blooming in western NC!

[Citradia]

My owari and star grapefruit survived the polar vortex and are now blooming alongside rhododendron and mountain ash. Sorry pic is sideways; site turned it for some reason.

[Igor]

Cool! My satsuma is blooming right now, too. What kind of protection did you use on the grapefruit tree? What was the minimum temperature recorded? Do you have any pics of your setup? I'm really looking forward to seeing them.

[Citradia]

Plastic over PVC frame with space heaters plugged into Thermo cube. I'll try to send pic. Last attempt failed.

[Citradia]

[Citradia]

[Millet]

Citradia, they must have survived because Saint Peter (I think as it looks like he is holding keys) in the first picture must have taken care of them. - Millet

[Igor]

@Millet: Funny, it was the first thing I noticed, too. @Citradia: Thanks for the pics, it looks like an easy setup to make. How energy efficient the whole thing was?

[Citradia]

It was more energy efficient with Thermo cube. Only needed small space heaters meant for putting on desk at work. It is St. Fiacre, St. Of gardening. He holds flowers and a shovel.

[Scott_6B]

Looking good! How cold did you get this past winter?  It doesn't look like my satsuma is going to flower this year... but my Gold Nugget planted just a few feet away has several flower buds.

[Millet]

citradia, Oh it is St. Fiacre.  No wonder all was well.  I also have Saint Fiacre standing tall in my greenhouse.  He is a hard worker. - Millet

[Cristofre]

I am about an hour to the South-West of you and my Satsumas also have bloomed very nice this year.
I would say mine saw about 18-20F at the lowest this past Winter.
I love these Satsumas!

[Citradia]

It got down to 0 degrees F three times at my house this winter, where it stayed zero all night long. It did of get much above freezing if at all the whole month of January. I remember days when the highs got into low twenties and thought we were having a heat wave. The only citrus that survived at my house this winter were the ones with the plastic covers and space heaters. All my poncyrus by rides died, even though they were buried in leaf cages with buckets of water and covered in frost cloth and had plastic wall wind breaks. The only hybrid to survive was Thomasville citrangquat which is now putting out a sprout from base of tree.