Doesn't Inverness get hard freezes ( 6 hours) fairly regularly? I'm not sure you'll have success there but maybe BR or Lou will come along soon with some insight on this issue. My sister in Lecanto has a tangerine tree that does well but it's only 6' from a horse barn so it's sheltered and shed some heat at night....

Anyway, if you want to make the trip to St. Petersburg you can get them on Flying Dragon dwarf rootstock here.

Tom

Read all the chapters in this valuable link.
Put the link in your favorites and refer to it often.
Contact your County Extension Agency.
Stay local if possible.
The largest citrus research center in the entire world is in Lake Alfred, Florida.
Plenty of help and resources out there for you so take your time.

Here is a link that might be useful: Your Florida Dooryard Citrus Guide

I was told by a grower that dwarf citrus can be sort of a myth - you can prune citrus trees to keep them smaller & different varieties grow to different sizes.

Here's my favorite local dealer (same 1 who told me above) - they have no storefront, but are @ the Greenthumb Festival here every year. Everything I've bought from them has thrived. They list cocktail in the 'Unique Citrus' section...

Here is a link that might be useful: J. A. Dodson Citrus & Fruits

Hi just to make you feel better you could not have brought your oranges into florida thats not allowed because of canker. The USDA has been known to check citrus trees in homeowners yards as well. That said where in Washington? i am orginally from Vancouver on the Columbia.

Katie

I'm from Portland. My wife from San Francisco. We lived in Everett, Washington for 27 years before I retired and moved to Arkansas. We couldn't afford our Florida dream then. The trees moved with me to Arkansas, but I knew about the problems with canker and greening, so left them there. A transplant from LA got them.

There are at least 6 citrus trees within 2 blocks of us, and what sure looks like a citrus grove a mile or so East of us, so it must be possible to deal with the occasional cold. I don't know how the ones with big trees handle it, but the guy across the street has Christmas lights in his dwarf tree. He says he has Christmas in February on occasion.

My yard is full of strange plants, so I'm probably going to have to have some help identifying some of it.

Inulover,

Welcome to Inverness:) Hope you love the town as much as I do. As Tom said we do get nippy and some winters see lows in the upper 20's. I have 11 or so citrus trees and have had some damage to them some years but they still thrive. None of my trees are planted close to a building but we do have the lakes to our north which modifies the cold north wind to some degree.

I hate those salad type trees for a couple reasons. 1. They just don't seem as robust as normal trees. 2. it always seems one of the grafted types is more robust and over time it takes over the tree and shades out those different limbs/varieties that grow slower.

Give up on the dwarf idea, just buy the couple trees you like and if you must prune them to keep them smaller. Citrus are after all shrubs not trees and do not need pruned for shape you can prune them and they take to it well.

Far as I am concerned if I could only have two trees it would be a tangerine and a lemon. The only problem is while the tangerine is very cold hardy the lemon is a wimp and is very susceptible to cold damage. If you do plant a lemon I would put misters in the tree and run them on those couple cold nights we get a year. The tangerines are just so darn good and so easy to peel and the tree is very prolific. The lemon (improved Meyer) is great as it gives you multiple harvests of lemons. My lemon has fruit on it now about 1/3 grown and is blooming again so it really extends the harvest. I would steer clear of limes as they are too easily killed by the cold.

Far as sources I bought my trees from Floyd's citrus down in Dade City. It was a bit of a drive but he has dozens of varieties in many sizes and unlimited knowledge and as a bonus his trees are a 1/3 the cost of the local big box store trees.

I'm from Portland. My wife from San Francisco. We lived in Everett, Washington for 27 years before I retired and moved to Arkansas. We couldn't afford our Florida dream then. The trees moved with me to Arkansas, but I knew about the problems with canker and greening, so left them there. A transplant from LA got them.

There are at least 6 citrus trees within 2 blocks of us, and what sure looks like a citrus grove a mile or so East of us, so it must be possible to deal with the occasional cold. I don't know how the ones with big trees handle it, but the guy across the street has Christmas lights in his dwarf tree. He says he has Christmas in February on occasion.

My yard is full of strange plants, so I'm probably going to have to have some help identifying some of it.

Inulover,

Welcome to Florida. Your actual location is most important as far as winter temperatures go. I live ten minutes drive south of bamboo_rabbit but my temperatures get much lower than his. I border huge cattle pastures to my north and the cold north wind just blows across to here driving the temperatures down. This past winter it went down to 15 overnight, then a 16, and a 19 with many days in the 20's. I have to grow my citrus in portable heated tents during winters. Even in the heated tents I have lost lemon trees, but the other citrus have done fairly well.

Lou

Satsumas and kumquats do really well in the colder FL zones too.
Welcome to FL. I've been here for 3 1/2 years and really like it :) WHen I moved here I had to get rid of alot of my citrus and I had gobs of them. Luckily I could give them to someone who would take good care of them (my mother) so that helped take the sting out of it. Plus she just bought a new house and really needed some trees for landscaping, she made out like a bandit :P