Our new babysitter (whom we just ADORE) is a recent transplant from Colorado to Florida.  She asked the other day if this (picture at left) was an orange tree.  I said it was then realized it would be fun to share more pictures of my lovely little tree since it had been awhile since I had shown the green golf balls.

It's a little hard here to get the perspective of the tree.  He's probably about 8 feet tall and 6 feet wide.  (The top gets lost in the oak tree behind it in this picture).

The oranges are now about the size of tennis balls.  They might grow a little bit more, but not much.

The orange tree leaves are shiny on one side and dull on the other.  The limbs have some sharp points too.  I suppose the word would be thorns wouldn't it?

If this orange was orange and not green, wouldn't it be perfect just to put the straw in and suck it up??

As I was getting pictures, I noticed this orange was bursting with excitement.  Literally.  I've never opened up an orange this early, but it looks pale orange inside.  Not quite appetizing yet.

These should all be ready for juice in February.  Yeah!

Green golf balls

Who would ever guess these are going to be orange fruit in a few months?  Right now, they're about the size of golf balls (green ones to be exact).

They're in little clusters like this all over my 8 foot tall orange tree.  The tree is pretty healthy and there are a TON of oranges on it this time.  (Last season's crop wasn't so great.)

Unfortunately, my grapefruit tree didn't make any fruit this year.  ??  Probably something I did....or didn't do. 

Little baby oranges

Remember when I blogged a couple of weeks ago about orange blossoms?  The blossoms are gone, and you can see little eensy-teensy oranges.  Yes, I promise you, these will be the oranges that will grow up to make us juice next March.  Promise.


They all won't necessarily get there.  Some fall off. Some just don't develop.  Overall, though, the tree will be loaded with juicy fruit.










Just to give you some perspective, those green "buttons" are about the size of a pea right at the moment.  They will be "full grown" in late fall, then will start to turn orange.

(And while I was taking these pictures, my little tree reminded me to fertilize him.)

Oranges are ready for juice

This is my little orange tree.  Actually, he's not so little -- probably about 9 to 10 feet.  He's a Satsuma and he makes oranges.  Satsuma oranges are meant to go for juice.  Their skin doesn't peel easily and there's a lot of pulp.  Unfortunately, he's only got about a third of the oranges he normally has.  While he's pretty tough and a frost doesn't really bother him (except make the leaves on top a bit gnarly), the blossoms don't fare so well.  Last year during the first part of March while the orange blossoms were blooming on the tree, a heavy frost came through and killed the ones that weren't protected.  Since the blossoms serve as the bud for the fruit, that meant few oranges for this year.  (Notice how the oranges we do have are up "under" the branches and leaves?  These are the ones that made it.)

I took this picture as we were pulling off the last of the oranges.  (I normally like to have them off no later than March 1, but got a little behind this year.)   If you notice the white buds that look like unopened tulips, those are the orange blossoms.  The next crop of oranges will grow from these.  Yes, theoretically, there could be an orange for every blossom.  I'm guessing these will be open in a week or so.  The fragrance is just awesome!  The nectar must be good to eat too since we usually see hummingbirds all over the tree when the blossoms are open.

My peeps didn't get them picked as well as the pros do, but they only worked for juice as payment.













At last, juice!  It was a tad tart and had lots of pulp, but was all gone after the squeezing. 

My orange tree post cold weather

It's spring here and we've been enjoying oranges off the tree for about a week or so. Since it was a rough winter on the tree (I blogged about this in January), I thought I would let everyone know the tree survived, albeit barely.









The oranges were able to finish ripening, but the tree looks rough. About half the leaves fell off and if you look at the picture above closely, the branches that extend up (from about 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock) are completely bare. These are the ones that were shoved into the top of the tent and apparently got too cold anyway.

I'm grateful he pulled through and hoping a springtime recovery is coming soon.

Brrr....this cold weather

So I have taken some ribbing from other friends this week when they hear me mention that "it's cold". They remind me I live in Florida, so how bad can it be? I counter that any day I can't wear flip-flops is a tragedy. (tongue in cheek of course) I must admit that I when I moved to Florida 12 years ago, I didn't think I would still be here. Funny how that works out.

So I thought I would also share another use for art show tents and canopies. With the cold this week, I couldn't take the chance of my orange tree freezing, so I've covered it with the tent and have a light inside to generate some heat. I'm not a horticulturist by any means, but this tree and I have a nice little relationship. He provides me with orange juice once a year, so the least I can do is help to keep him warm on the really cold Florida nights.

(For perspective, the tent is 10 feet tall in the center.)


This is my tree from the inside. He fills it up pretty well; we had to tuck several branches inside. There's not much room to sell jewelry!











The oranges have been turning color for the last month. They won't be ready until the first of March or so. These are Satsuma oranges, which are juice oranges. (They are thin-skinned and don't peel well.) I generally pick them off as I need them. We're lucky to have fresh juice daily for about 2 to 3 weeks.