Hi,
last summer I bought a trifoliate orange from oscar tintori, 3 very nice developed plants grown into one huge root crown. The plant was full of small leaves but they sawed (I can still see the saw tooth ridges) some thicker branches to fit in the box.
In autumn it loses it's leaves, which is normal since it's deciduous, but now we're May and it's been getting plenty of sun, it got the usual slow release fertilizer mid march, the branches look green and lush, though some thorns and where it was sawed off have a yellow edge.
There are no signs of new buds, flowers of leaves, there are also no signs of damage or degradation, the branches do not turn brown or do not dry out, so I am confused as to why it isn't doing anything.
It was transplanted in a bigger pot with good soil mix last summer upon arrival, roots were washed out, the plant did not suiffer from this at all, I expected leaf drop but there was nothing, so I was happy to have a strong plant, but now I am wondering if he's adapting to our climate or needs a year to recover from the pruning or something else?
It stayed in my greenhouse in the winter, since it's cold hardy no additional protection was needed.
The only thing that still has leaves is a very young tiny shoot between those 3 plants but that one remains small. Since they're all grown from seed and not grafted , it's not a sucker so removal should not be required.