For reference, my dad is in zone 7a in central Virginia, and when he tried keeping them outdoors about half of them died. Now he overwinters them in the house. (They're about 6 feet tall, reasonably portable.) After some experimentation, he discovered that what they want is to basically just be stored in a cold, dimly lit room and watered very sparingly. He used the garage last year, which has some small south-facing windows in the garage door, and the plants he kept in there flowered and fruited quite heavily that spring and summer.
It sounds like you could probably get away with it, especially if you keep it pruned low and bushy and/or near a wall. I recently read an article about trench cultivation of citrus in Russia and it sounds like just keeping them out of the wind and near thermal mass is a big boost.
Up here in Somerville, MA, we're in zone 6b. Not so very different from central Virginia, which always astonishes me.
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Date: 2021-11-23 12:32 am (UTC)It sounds like you could probably get away with it, especially if you keep it pruned low and bushy and/or near a wall. I recently read an article about trench cultivation of citrus in Russia and it sounds like just keeping them out of the wind and near thermal mass is a big boost.
Up here in Somerville, MA, we're in zone 6b. Not so very different from central Virginia, which always astonishes me.