Valencia Orange Tree (FL)

Valencia Orange: Get Tons of Delicious Juice From Home If you've ever poured a glass of orange juice, you've tasted a Valencia. This is the late-season standard that the juice industry was built around — and growing your own means picking it sun-warmed off the branch instead of off a shelf. Valencias ripen long after most oranges are gone, holding their crop right through spring and into summer, so a single tree stretches your citrus season for months. The fruit is deeply sweet with a bright, balanced tang, almost seedless, and so packed with juice that the thin, leathery rind practically struggles to contain it. Why You'll Love the Valencia Orange The juice orange, by definition. No other variety delivers Valencia's volume of sweet, richly colored juice — this is the fruit the orange-juice standard is measured against. A harvest that arrives late and lingers. Fruit ripens spring into summer and holds firmly on the tree for months, so you pick at your pace instead of racing the calendar. Few seeds, easy eating. Valencias run nearly seedless, making them as pleasant to peel and segment as they are to squeeze. Two crops on one tree. A mature Valencia often carries ripening fruit and next season's blossoms at the same time — a striking, productive sight. Fragrant, evergreen, and ornamental. Glossy foliage and clouds of white, honey-scented blossoms make it a centerpiece long before the first orange colors up. One quirk gives the Valencia character: as warm weather returns, ripe fruit can flush faintly green again at the stem — a harmless cosmetic effect called regreening that has nothing to do with sweetness inside. Grown in the ground in warm regions or in a container that summers outdoors and overwinters in, the Valencia rewards a sunny spot with years of the freshest juice you'll ever pour. Please note: This tree ships in a citra pot—a tall, narrow container that promotes vertical root growth and prevents root circling.