This kitchen favourite is at its best right now – and it’s easy-peasy to grow

My Cara Caras keep coming and coming. Their flesh might not be as red as the ones in the shops but these oranges are so sweet and tangy that many of them don’t even make it inside: I peel them and eat them straight off the tree. Winter is always a good time for citrus.

But it can be a very bad time as well. For every one of my citrus trees that is doing well, I have several others on the verge of death. The healthiest can thank the fact that I planted them next to a hulking steel shed that reflects light, radiates heat, buffers wind and generally provides everything a citrus tree might want.

Many citrus trees, including lemons, are at their best right now.Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

Not so cosy for the multiple Eureka, Lisbon, Meyer, and Lemonade lemons ­– I was nothing if not ambitious – that I planted in an open paddock. For three years now I have been plying them with compost, fertiliser and mulch. I have watered and weeded them. I have rubbed scale off their leaves and pinched shoots off their rootstock. I have even attempted to give them wind protection by planting fast-growing wattles to one side.

No go. For the third July straight these 12 assorted lemons have lost all their leaves and together have only a handful of small, unpromising fruits. Now I am steeling myself to pull them out. There are some places that citrus just won’t grow.

Hailing from the tropics of South-East Asia, they don’t like frost, strong winds or waterlogged soils. They hate competition from other plants. What they enjoy is warm sun and good drainage. They love Sydney and are very happy in Melbourne too.

But the great thing about mandarins, lemons, limes and the like is that, even in less than ideal climates, you might be able to find the conditions to suit. You don’t need to go the lengths of the 16th- and 17th-century Europeans who came up with sun-bathed orangeries to house the potted oranges that would otherwise not have made it through winter.

North and east-facing walls can often be enough to encourage all the winter warmth and wind protection that is required. Containing citrus in pots and moving them according to the season is another option.

It’s worth persevering with whatever works for you because the edible fruit is just one of the rewards of citrus. These plants also provide fragrant white flowers and deep green, glossy leaves. By encouraging their canopy to spread, citrus trees can be used to cast wide shade, but by pruning them into an espalier they can also provide a space-effective screen. Citrus can be used as hedges and as houseplants (though they will generally need some time outdoors).

Their versatility is one of the reasons citrus trees have become such staples of Australian gardening. While oranges, lemons and limes arrived in Australia with the First Fleet in 1788 – having been purchased in Brazil en route – there were actually citrus plants already here.

Finger limes are native to the rainforests around the coastal border of Queensland and NSW, and the burgeoning interest in growing them domestically reflects an increasingly adventurous approach to citrus more generally.

The cylindrical fruits of finger limes, which need warm, protected, well-draining spots in full sun to part shade in order to thrive, are not like other citrus. They can’t be eaten in segments like an orange or mandarin. You don’t juice them like a lemon. Squeeze a finger lime and what pops out are tart, juicy vesicles. These caviar-like pearls are mostly eaten raw.

Buddha’s hand citron is prized for its flavourful rind.Credit: Getty Images

Buddha’s Hand citron, long cultivated in Asia, is even stranger. Its elongated, segmented fruits look like deep-sea creatures and contain not a drop of juice. The intensely flavoured rind is the edible part of this aromatic fruit that needs a warm, sunny spot to thrive.

Yuzu, much celebrated in Japan, is another citrus finding new Australian audiences. It is the size of a mandarin with the tartness of lemon and the bitterness of grapefruit, and is primarily used in cooking rather than eaten fresh. More cold tolerant than many other sorts of citrus, the yuzu will tolerate a light frost once established.

Blood oranges, more familiar than yuzu but less common than navels, are red-fleshed and proving increasingly popular to both grow and eat. Whatever blood orange variety you choose – and there are several – be aware that some of their colour comes down to climate. The hottest hues appear inside blood oranges grown in places with hot summers paired with cool autumns and especially nippy winter nights.

It’s the same with the Cara Cara, which is not strictly speaking a blood orange as the fruits are coloured by different pigments. But it is still my delicious, lurid treat at this time of year.

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