SWEET ORANGES
Navelina (NEW): a small to medium sized tree. Earliest maturing navel (April), slightly oval shaped with a thin, deep orange rind, medium to large fruit, good flavour.
Washington navel: a mid season, sweet seedless variety maturing in early winter (May- June): its large excellent eating fruit is easy to peel and segment and holds on the tree for several months under favourable conditions. Trees of medium vigour and size.
Lane Late navel: has all the eating qualities of seedless navels, but colours and matures later in August.
Valencia: a late, seeded variety that matures from September, and will hold on the tree for six months under favourable growing conditions. Fruit of medium sizes, thin skinned and suitable for fresh juicing.
Seedless Valencia: similar to the normal Valencia, but with few seeds and slightly earlier maturity (August).
Joppa & Mediteranean Sweet: are seedy mid season maturing oranges (July-August), with thin skins, reliable cropping and high juice content and good flavour.
Maltese Blood: an old variety with limited but distinctive rind/flesh pigmentation and flavour. Matures mid season (July-September), seedy. Medium sized tree.
Arnold Blood (NEW): has darker and more consistent rind/flesh pigmentation. Matures mid season (July-September) with medium sized fruit and loose rind.
GRAPEFRUITS
Marsh: a near seedless large fruit, with straw coloured flesh. Can be harvested from July, but is sweeter if left on the tree until spring-summer.
Wheeny: large seedy fruit, light straw coloured flesh, maturing June-July, with a distinct lemon flavour.
Star Ruby, Rio Red and Ray (NEW): recently imported pigmented varieties. The degree of rind, flesh and juice varying from pink-red, depending on growing conditions.
MANDARINS and related hybrids
Japanese Seedless (with two varieties to choose from). Miho satsuma (NEW):
very early maturing but with only a short harvest period from early April, easy
peel seedless mandarin with smaller fruit and good flavour. OR Okitsu satsuma
(NEW): medium sized, spreading tree. Very early maturing with a limited
harvest period mid April, easy peel, seedless, large flatter fruit, good flavour.
Nules clementine (NEW): heavy cropper of deep orange-coloured fruit which is seedless and matures in early April-May. Vigorous very productive trees.
Imperial: an early variety that matures in May. Tree is vigorous with upright growth habit. Fruit small-medium sized, peels easily and a distinctive flavour.
Thorny: a mid season maturing mandarin in June-July. Small fruit is soft, good flavoured-sweet and easily peeled. Tree has small narrow leaves and few thorns.
Emperor: a mid season variety that matures between June –August. Fruit is large with good flavour, easily peeled orange rind and segmented, with few seeds.
Minneola tangelo: tree is vigorous. Fruit matures mid season (July-August), has a distinct neck and thin tight bright reddish orange rind. A distinctive flavour (tart-like grapefruit), very juicy and few seeds.
Ellendale: late maturing in August-October. Fruit is flat, large, smooth tighter rind, seedy, juicy and a rich flavour.
Honey Murcott: a moderately vigorous bushy tree. Late maturing, medium sized fruit in August-October, with a smooth, firm thin yellow-orange rind, high juice content, excellent rich flavour, and contains seeds.
Seminole tangelo: tree is vigorous. Fruit seedy, medium sized, round with a thin, tight deep reddish-orange rind. Matures late (September-October) and juicy-acid flavour.
Jamaican tangerine–Ortanique (NEW): a vigorous spreading tree and late maturing (September-November). Fruit medium sizes, seedy, with orange tight rind, juicy.
LEMONS
Eureka: tree has few thorns and a moderately vigorous spreading habit. Ideal for the home garden as several crops are produced per year (winter, spring and summer).Fruit medium sized, thin yellow rind, few seeds and high acid - juice content.
Lisbon: tree is vigorous, large, upright spreading with dense foliage, more thorns and has some cold tolerance. Tends to have one heavy crop per year in winter- spring. Fruit smooth, less necked - otherwise similar to Eureka.
Meyer: small compact tree, more cold-tolerant than other lemons. The fruit, produced throughout the year (but mostly winter-spring), is almost orange in colour, has a high juice content and a mild, low-acid flavour.
Lemonade: a vigorous, heavy cropping tree with fruit similar in appearance to a lemon. Mainly matures in winter, easy to peel and segment, but with a lower acid ‘lemonade’ flavour when eaten fresh or juiced.
LIMES
Tahiti: trees are upright, medium sized, and nearly thornless. Fruit resembles a small lemon but less cold hardy and with a very thin rind. Flesh is seedless and pale green in colour. Main crop matures autumn-spring and usually harvested with silver/light green rind colour.
West Indian: tree bushy, less vigorous with many small thorns, frost susceptible. A true lime, fruit is smaller, rounder with very thin rinds, green flesh, seedy. Flavour very acidic-strong lime aroma. Main crop matures summer-ongoing; with dark green-yellow rinds.
Sweet (acidless): fruit round, medium-sized, smooth, thin orange-yellow rind. Single crop maturing winter, with good juice content, few seeds but an insipid taste due to low acidity.
Kaffir (NEW): small tree with shrub like growth and many thin branches. Frost susceptible. Fruit has a thick rough rind, lacks juice, very seedy and acidic-little value-maturing in winter. Distinctive shaped fresh or dried leaves widely used to flavour-garnish Asian style cooking.
Finger lime (NEW): a unique Australian rainforest, small evergreen tree. Fruit are ‘finger shaped’ and sized, ripening in autumn. Skin from purple-green and the mature pulp is green-pink. Flavour similar to West Indian lime and can be used to complement seafood or Asian, sweets or savoury dishes. (Protected by PBR).
CALAMONDINS
Green & Variegated: trees have moderate vigour and highly productive, making them ideal for ornamentals and tub growing. Fruit medium sized, with thin, loose, bright orange rind, few seeds and acidic. Used to garnish food (like lemons-lime), marmalade, in liqueurs or candied. The variegated variety is the same except with variegated leaf colouring and immature fruit.
CUMQUATS
Nagami (oval) & Meiwa (round): are small bushy trees cold hardy, and ideal for ornamental and container growing. Blossom late (November) and deep orange fruit with few seeds, matures over a long period The juice is acidic, but the spicy outer rind and sweeter albedo gives a pleasant flavour if eaten whole, candied, or in marmalade.
MISCELLANEOUS
Buddha’s Hand citron (NEW): unusual and interesting as the fruit is split down its length into a number of ‘finger-like’ sections, resembling a human hand. It lacks flesh, juice or seed development. Uses include ornaments in religious ceremonies, perfuming rooms and clothing.
Bergamot (NEW): a distinctive characteristic of both fruit and foliage is the strongly pungent and agreeable perfume and unique aromatic oil (essence). This essence is used in a vast range of perfume and pharmaceutical products.
Pummelo: the largest of the citrus fruit, with yellow-green and thick rind. Lack the bitter flavour and have similar uses to grapefruit-breakfast fruit or juice.
Seville (sour/bitter) orange: this variety maturing in late winter, has a very bitter-acidic flavour and used extensively for marmalade.
Chinotto: is a sour orange, with small, rough rind, bright orange-red fruits maturing in winter. Mainly used as an ornamental shrub/patio tree, and the fruit can be used for marmalade.
Rangpur: an attractive mandarin-lime variety, with bright orange coloured fruit which is acidic and suitable only for drinks. Tree is a prolific winter bearer and cold hardy.
ROOTSTOCKS
Citrus trees are propagated by budding the variety/scion onto specially grown and suitable-compatible rootstocks. All the listed varieties are generally available on a range of rootstocks i.e. P. trifoliata, Swingle citrumelo, Cox hybrid, and Troyer or Carrizo citrange.
Different rootstocks will help adapt citrus to varying climatic (cold) and soil conditions i.e. light-sandy, heavy-clay, alkaline, phytophthora root rot-replant or nematode sites.
