probably not. climate-wise they do fine, however most of the citrus in the state is dying from the greening disease for which there is no cure.

currently there are some transgenic varieties being developed, but nothing viable at the moment. possibly triumph grapefruit.

flowers, i would recommend going with natives whenever possible. there are some really amazing varieties down here.

however, also try out canna lilies, old garden roses, pentas, camellias, azaleas, brugmansias, gardenias, rosemary, lavender (certain cultivars), amaryllis (VERY EASY), mexican heather, passionflowers (and edible!), prickly pear cactus (several species, yellow flowers in spring), amaranth is grown both for ornamental and food purposes, you could try something like black lace or 'black beauty' elderberries

for a very eco friendly flowering ground-cover try using sunshine mimosa and perennial peanut (purple and yellow flowers respectively, good for bees)

oh hydrangea and hibiscus, jasmine,

Depending on where you are in Zone 9 (a or b), you will still need to protect your citrus trees in the winter on Freeze nights. The limes especially will still freeze back if they're not protected. Last year I lost my Key Lime down to about an inch above the graft from a March freeze and this year I lost my Bearss Lime in pretty much the same way (it was in-ground while my revived Key Lime was potted and moved inside on this particular cold-snap night), but I ended up with about 3-4 inches of living trunk left and it is now sending out new branches and slowly recovering.

As far as what flowers will grow... well... there are literally TONS of flowers that can grow here in Zone 9, but it will largely depend on what kind of soil you have in your area. For example, Hibiscus flowers are a favorite of people in this area and while the guy down the street from me (at the bottom of the hill and in the 'gully') can grow them in front of his house, my own house is on a sandy slope and would not sustain hibiscus very well without heavily amending the soil to help it retain more moisture and prevent run-off.

Light conditions will also affect what flowers you can grow at your new home. If you have little to no shade, I don't think a hydrangea will be very happy in your yard, but there are other flowers that will love all that sun during the summer.

My best advice would be to find your local county extension office and talk to them. I think they even have a service where they can send an agent out to assess your yard for you for a small fee. This is something I wish I had done when I first started working in my yard, it would have saved me a ton of time and a little bit of money and a few headaches.

In the meantime, you can peruse the Florida-Friendly Plants Database and get a general (sometimes very general) idea of what is going to be available to you. As the name suggests, the plants you will find on this site are more for working with your environment and will not include some of the exotics that you can also grow, but might need more attention.

"however most of the citrus in the state is dying from the greening disease"

Saying that is like saying the human race is doomed because 1000 people died from the flu last year and is wildly inaccurate.

Unfortunately, greening is a very big problem. But if you have the trees can't hurt to try.

Florida, discovered by pone de leon, was named by him. It means flowery land. A good description. You will have many choices. Get help on choices.

When I hear a question about which flowers I always say orchids. They are one of my passions. The big secret is they are easy to grow. Just different requirements.

Welcome to Florida.

Something that I haven't seen mentioned yet is that it is both a federal and state crime to bring citrus trees into Florida. Yeah, your trees probably aren't infected with some new and devastating disease, but we are quarantined, never the less. Your sister should gift the trees to someone that will love them before she moves, then buy new trees here. In most of zone 9 you won't need to bring them indoors in the winter, and you can put them in the ground if you have room and reap the bounty from a full sized tree.

As far as HLB (Citrus Greening) goes, the Chinese have been living with this disease for over 200 years. They are still growing citrus. Coke is going to invest 2 billion in orange groves in Florida, so somebody thinks growing it here is viable.

Larry

"Saying that is like saying the human race is doomed because 1000 people died from the flu last year and is wildly inaccurate. "

It was based on available scientific research. Currently all 32 citrus producing counties test positive for the disease. There are no treatments. This is coming from the extension offices.

You sound ignorant.

as i pointed out though, there are a series of transgenic varieties on the way that do not have issues with it.

they might have survived just fine in CHINA for hundreds of years without any problem. guess where florida is not.

in this state it is destroying most all of the citrus. the disease has a long latency period and many farmers think they are doing just fine coping with it until the plants just up and die.

also, we have no evidence that the strains people have been fighting for so long are the same ones they are fighting now. with citrus hybrids having been cultivated all over the world, and material being shifted around from places that would have been otherwise isolated during that time, i believe it would be a stretch to say "oh yeah thats not really a problem."

as i pointed out though, there are a series of transgenic varieties on the way that do not have issues with it.

they might have survived just fine in CHINA for hundreds of years without any problem. guess where florida is not.

in this state it is destroying most all of the citrus. the disease has a long latency period and many farmers think they are doing just fine coping with it until the plants just up and die.

also, we have no evidence that the strains people have been fighting for so long are the same ones they are fighting now. with citrus hybrids having been cultivated all over the world, and material being shifted around from places that would have been otherwise isolated during that time, i believe it would be a stretch to say "oh yeah thats not really a problem."

Mimosamonster,

What you said was inaccurate. You said and again I quote....

"however most of the citrus in the state is dying from the greening disease"

To be accurate you would need 51% of the states citrus trees dying and that simply is not the case not even close. A very small percentage of the states trees are even infected let alone dying. Heck most trees that get greening are not even dying if properly managed.

If what you said is true explain how orange production in the state fell by LESS THAN ONE PERCENT last year. Production was over 141 MILLION boxes.

If the citrus trees are doomed as you so foolishly and erroneously stated why did Coke just spend two BILLION dollars to plant 25,000 new acres in citrus? Let me guess, you know more than they do right? (rolls eyes)

Is greening a problem..sure it is, a big problem. Is what you said drama queen nonsense and completely inaccurate..sure it is. Don't like being called on making stupid statements than don't make them. Have a nice day.

I don't know why I bother to respond to idiots like you. You really do not deserve the internet.

Here is my history with oranges. My family has grown them for four generations. My great grandfather my grandfather, my uncles...

Various branches of my family have had contracts with subsidiary companies of Coka Cola.

Their operations have all ceased. Not just because of greening, but that was a part of it. I remember the discussions where they sat around the table trying to see if maybe they could make their operations work in another part of the world. Eventaully a lot of the land has simply gone wasted.

As far as my own very small collection of trees I can tell you I have had suspected greening on them for several years. They did fine at first, I used just about every organic and crazy treatment you can imagine. The oranges were horrible last year, and they are withered this one.

I can also point to reports that the Florida orange production values have been falling.

---
“Florida’s orange crop, the world’s second-largest, will be 11 percent smaller than first forecast in October, the U.S. government said, affirming last month’s estimate and surprising analysts after beneficial rain.
The state will produce 138 million boxes of the fruit in the harvest that started in October and runs through June, unchanged from the April forecast, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today in a report. On average, analysts and traders expected 137.6 million boxes, a Bloomberg News survey showed. Output last year was 146.7 million. Futures pared gains in New York.
In April, the USDA cut the crop forecast for the fifth straight month from its first estimate of 154 million boxes in October. A state group has said that the citrus greening, a bacterial disease, is “threatening to wipe out” Florida’s $9 billion citrus industry. This week, Coca Cola Co., the owner of Minute Maid juices, said it plans to spend $2 billion to support planting of 25,000 acres of new groves.
“We’ve seen up to 50 percent of the crop lost in some areas because of greening, with some fruit not usable for anything,” said Dean Mixon, a farmer in Bradenton, Florida, whose family has been in the citrus business more than 75 years. While “the disease is more prevalent in southern parts, the announcement by Coca Cola this week, is very telling about the industry’s concern,” he said.
“
----
was reported on bloomberg just several days ago. It should also be noted that in 2010 … values fell to about half of what they were before... so an already incredibly small orange market begins to shrink. Its nowhere near what it used to be and shows no signs of growing.

I love how you try to pull out the coka cola example like “derp its not a problem derp”. … \

Coka Coila and all their subsidiaries are using GMO oranges. Its pretty common knowledge.
There are about four or five really good research teams right now working GMO improved crops that are resistant to the outbreaks. Currently the best hope is Mirkov's research at TAMU. They have already created some modified Hamlin, Rio red grapefruits, and some bud stock that appear to be completely resistant. I know that most of the research is being funded by Texas and Florida grower groups down in south Florida. They used genes from spinach so most of the ANTIgmo crowd should be ok with it. Either way you just sound ignorant and calling me a drama queen just makes you an idiot.

"Coka Coila" "coka cola"

LMAO......it is Coca Cola if you can't even spell the name of the most popular soft drink company in the world perhaps you should not be so free calling others an idiot :)

The fact remains you are wrong.......you said "most of the citrus in the state is dying from the greening disease".

Post a link from any of the state universities backing up your claim.

Far as your family blah blah.....utter nonsense. You can claim to be bugs bunny if you would like but nobody is going to believe you. Let me share some advice with you as I have a feeling you are just a kid and you just registered here days ago.......when you are in a hole, stop digging.

Now lets see that university link stating most of Florida's citrus trees are dying.

The fact that he used meme 'derp' is fairly good indicator of age... but I've seen women in their 70's use internet memes like they were teenagers, so it's not a sure-fire indicator. But I will say this, in the year that I have been on these forums, Bamboo_Rabbit has been an over-flowing fountain of knowledgeable information and he often has various sources to back up his advice. And so far... he hasn't be wrong. And he still isn't. I'm not going to question your (MimosaMonster) experience, but the simple fact is, he (Bamboo) is right. You said most citrus plants were dying of greening. That means a majority and thus far, the majority of citrus plants in Florida have not been dying. Yet. Could it happen in a few years? Sure. But the Universities have been busting their brains trying to figure a way to beat this and some people have had luck fending it off with micro-nutrient sprays. So at the moment 'most' citrus trees are not dying. That said, can we take this argument from Denise's thread? I'm pretty sure this is not what she wanted when she was asking for information and help.

Inu, that is interesting to learn. I admit that I had not heard that we were in a citrus quarantine at the moment. Given that bit of information though, I agree that it would be in Denise's best interest to repurchase new citrus plants upon arrival instead of bringing hers with her. I hope she hasn't given it a name (my wife does that sort of thing...). Besides, it's my understanding that a citrus plant in the north might be on different root-stock than a citrus plant in Florida and might not do as well?

We have been under a quarantine for scab and HLB for some time. Citrus fruit can be shipped out of Florida if it has been disinfected. There used to be 3 processors that would handle small quantities of home grown fruit, but I haven't looked into shipping any fora year or two, so I'm not sure of the status of door yard fruit shipping. The HLB quarantine is still in effect and it precludes moving any trees out of florida unless it has nursery certification to ship. Briteleaf nursery recently got its certification. I took them more than a year to satisfy the USDA. Their nursery an air locked, contamination controlled facility kept under positive pressure... kind like an operating room. Moving citrus into Florida has been restricted for years, as it is in California, Texas, and other citrus producing states. The government is trying to stop the spread of the diseases and their vectors.

Mimosa boy sounds like he thinks the Chinese have some super tree that is resistant to HLB. I recently did a search of English language Chinese publications because I hoped to find that was true. I'm sure some university biologist has thought of that before, but I like to look for myself. What I found was HLB infection just like here. They live with it by intense psyllid control and intensive orchard management. Some get rid of any tree that looks like it has HLB, others trim away branches that appear to be infected after fruit harvest.

This shouldn't be another long thread about HLB. We have had a few of those already. They wanted to know about growing flowers as well, so lets let the HLB go for now an tell him about the cool blooming stuff.

Larry... and my spelling has be bad for 50 years, so give be a break,OK?

bloomberg reported in 2010 that half the production has already been affected.
so that point was passed a long time ago.

/idiots

Please don't grow Knockout Roses. They are very beautiful and they bloom nonstop. They get a rose mite not that is uncontrollable by chemicals. Teas roses grew good for me when we lived in Vero Beach, Fl. No black spot disease. Yeah!!

Hey if we wanted to welcome this new member, maybe we should get back on topic instead of harping on citrus greening. Cause everyone knows the REAL problem is that pesky ambrosia beetle and our AVOCADOS.

(I'm only 1/2 kidding)

Welcome to Florida!

I want to thank everyone for all the helpful information. Sorry that some had to get nasty on here. No need for that. I know my sister and I will enjoy living in Florida and seeing all the beauty the state has to offer. We are really getting excited for the move. My sister is going to ask around here and see if anyone would want the two citrus trees. We will start from scratch (or maybe the previous owners will have them growing already). I'm sure you will see my name pop up here again with questions. Thanks again for all the help.

Denise - I just want to say thanks for being gracious about your thread getting sidetracked. We hope you'll love it here, and we look forward to hearing from you again soon!

Maybe the majority of citrus trees in the state havent got HLB yet, but Im pretty sure the majority of MINE have. Either way, the dooryard cultivation of citrus has become monumentally difficult in comparison to how it used to be. Leaf miner, scab, citrus greening, alternaria brown spot, greasy spot, canker, on and on and on... I'm not very old at all, but I remember being a kid and citrus was virtually carefree.

And it's not just me. Look around in people's backyards. When I was a kid, everyone had citrus in their yard. Nowadays hardly anybody does.

I'm just letting you know, citrus will be a major challenge.

As far as citrus goes, all I've got is a 3 year old Meyer lemon tree. Last winter it had so many fruit the branches were all hanging on the ground and I had to prop them up. As for flowers, I've ended up growing most of mine in large planters, the ones in the ground don't seem to thrive (I'm not talking about flowering bushes here). Heliconia so far is my fave, it's in the Bird of Paradise family, but is much easier to get to bloom. I started out with one plant a year ago, now I have so many I resorted to planting them in recycling bins. They are very easy to divide. As for flowering shrubs, definitely gardenia and hibiscus. There's an old gardenia in my yard that is in full bloom right now, and rarely is without a blossom year round. It quickly replaced my nostalgia for Lilacs.

Slopfrog,

I think it all depends where you live. I have 15 varieties of citrus including a couple quite rare varieties and I have no greening, no scab no problems at all. I think the reason is there are not a lot of citrus in my neighborhood so i'm at least a bit isolated. I do feed the trees religiously and I give them foliar micro nutrient sprays. That said I am not putting any more in and will concentrate on other fruiting plants.

I attended a talk about plant diseases at EPCOT. The speaker noted that some types of citrus are more tolerant of greening than others. Sorry, I don't recall which ones were most tolerant, but I remember sweet oranges were not as tolerant. He said a plant can harbor greening without showing symptoms and possibly could infect other nearby citrus. You have to weigh your options.

He also said most commercial farmers are no longer removing infected trees, but they try to manage the disease as long as possible with micronutrient sprays.

It's a complicated issue.

One other thing to consider is the soil here. I am a fairly recent transplant (lived in many northern states and Houston). Depending on where in the state you are, you might end up with soil that is litterally just beach sand. i live in the city of saint Pete, and there is no organic matter in the soil to hold water and nutrients.

You may find - as I have - that many plants do better in pots, or at least until you build up the soil. I find that most things planted straight in the ground did poorly or died. While i have been building up the soil and some things are doing better, its not great yet. Just something i had not considered that you may want to :-)