Key limes head my list as well.

Tangerines would be next. Several varieties of those.

Grapefruit - good old seedy yellow Duncan picked at the right time.

I'd have to think about how I'd order the rest.

.....Alan.

Satsumas any variety can't go wrong with these in z9a
Golden grapefruit seedy, but mild and great tasting
Pink or Duncan grapefruit
changshou kumquat large and sweet, best kumquat
washington navel best tasting round orange

Here is a link that might be useful: mrtexas

Persian Limes-seedless, juicy, prolific, easy to grow. I have three trees and we never tire of the fruit.

Satsuma-tender, sweet, easy to peel, lovely tree.

Ruby Red Grapefruit-rich red color, sweet, tasty and huge crops year after year.

Ponderosa Lemon-giant seedy fruits on a funny looking little tree with lots of character.

Bearss Lemon- perfect for zest, juicing, using in soda/tea/seltzer/marinades. Makes even yucky canned tuna taste good if you put enough lemon juice on it! Tough, productive tree.

Lisa

1- Improved Meyer Lemon (Easiest to grow. Gourmet fruit. Even Martha Stewart says so!)
2- Kaffir Lime (I love to cook. . . and eat. This is one of few fruiting trees that produces fruit AND foliage for culinary use. Besides, the tree smells divine and the foliage is most unusual in appearance.)
3- Kumquat (I like Nagami and Meiwa. Good fruit. Nice tight foliage and it's the last plant I have to bring into the greenhouses for winter.)
4- Cara Cara Pink Navel (Without qualification, the best sweet orange I have ever tasted - and I've sampled many. On top of it's succulent flavor, this fruit is a feast for the eyes.)
5- Calamondin/Satsuma (It's hard not to like the Satsum Mandarin. They are easy to grow and even easier to peel. And, although I've had my share of troubles with Calamondins, this is a sentimental choice. It was the first citrus I ever grew in a container -- more than 20 years ago -- back when growing citrus was only a hobby for me.)

Oh Kaffir I didn't even think of that! I agree! Kaffir leaves and lemon grass... opps oh I know that's not citrus.

Ponderosa Lemon..love the huge fruit.
Meyer's Lemon...seems to be every flowering and fruiting
Kaffir Lime...love the odd-shaped fruit
Satsuma...can live through anything..cold or heat
Kumquat...don't have one but when I did it fruited througout the yr..That's next on my list of citrus to buy.

I do have a wish list too for citrus I would die to own;

I finally did get ONE Finger lime little seedling. I'd love to have a mature tree. At least a 3 gallon size.

Would also love an Australia Blood lime.

Also would LOVE to see someone cultivate a varigated key lime.

Lemongrass is not citrus. But, when you're cooking Thai, Lemongrass and Kaffir Lime are essentials. I have both and I use both on a regular basis. -- Toni, what is your Kumquat preference?

1. Satsuma
2. Ponkan
3. Navel
4. Bearss Lime
5. Lisbon Lemon

1. Satsuma - sweeeeet!
2. Key Lime - got rum?
3. Hirado Buntan Pomelo - volleyball anyone?
4. Persian Lime - dependable and productive
5. Meyer lemon - fickle and insipid, but cold hardy

1. Key Lime - accept no substitute!
2. Washington Navel Orange - the gold standard: big, juicy, and seedless!
3. Variegated Eureka Lemon - skimpy on fruit, but the tree is gorgeous
4. Owari Satsuma - zipper skin, awesome flavor, and seedless
5. New addition - Shasta Gold mandarin! - no comment yet, but the tree I received today is gigantic. Can't wait for next year

1. Washington Navel- Ate them every morning in season, peeled and the sections cut out (I love my mom and I do it for my kinds. My two girls will eat them over candy.)
2. Meyer Lemon- Easy to grow lots of fruit, great on Fish
3. Robinson Tangerine- Fruit so orange it makes fall decoration, compact tree with lots of folage, they look so nice every fall outside my office window and they eat so very nice when ripe.
4. Pineapple Orange- The best Juice for Christmas breakfeast, first grown only a few miles from my grove and still great in our conditions.
5. Duncan Grapefruit- Plenty of seeds but great flavor and the hang on the tree for months, picked the last ones in June from under the canopy.

6. This list could go on for days, that is what is so great about citrus.

1. Calamondin. Flowers and fruits indoors even in midwinter. Very aromatic flowers. Even use the fruits for cooking.
2. Kumquats. Hold their leaves and fruits forever.
3. Persian lime. Easy to fruit and robust grower.
4. Valencia Orange (Dwarf). Very aromatic flowers and easy to fruit.
5. Eureka lemon. Large fruits on tiny plants.

1.Meiwa Kumquat-yummy garden treat!
2.Satsuma-so sweeet!
3.Meyer Lemon-bountiful harvest!It also makes great lemonade!
4.Pomelo-love the taste!
5.Key Lime-grandma loves to use their leaves in cooking curry!

I can live without them, but a little bit miserable without these:

1 Calamondin
2 Lemons
3 Yuzu
4 Sudachi
5 pigmented oranges

I can live but something is amiss without these:
1. Calamondin
2. Washington Navel
3. Honey/satsuma tangerine
4. Eureka/ Meyer lemon
5. Oroblanco/Pomello

Tams..Holy Cow!!!... Its like choosing your favorite GrandSon..Dale

AAE, I'd have say the Nagami..I had one before but that was one of the citrus that froze when my gh heater went out..(sigh)
To be honest, I'd never seen a Meiwi before..Are they both ever-blooming? Toni

Dale - Don't worry. Once you have a little experience growing citrus, picking five favorites won't be that difficult for you.
Toni - The foliage, blooming/fruiting habits and hardiness of the Meiwa and Nagami are basically identical. The Nagami (long fruit) is the most (commercially) grown Kumquat in the US. Among the few hundred folks that I've polled, most of them prefer the Meiwa (short fruit) because it's sweeter. I like them both. Your Nagami likely died because it went from toasty warm to sub-freezing in no time flat. The same can happen with any tree, no matter what the genus or documented hardiness levels. Kumquats could be considered everbearing (mine usually bear fruit three times in a calendar year). Right now, I have a Nagami on my front porch (grafted to P. trifoliate) and it's in its second bloom cycle of 2005. I have a Calamondin (grafted to C. aurantium) on the same porch, which is in its fourth bloom cycle of the calendar year. So, everbearing varieties can vary -widely- in the number of annual cycles. Meanwhile, I have a Jaffa Orange that bears alternately over a three year period -- then fruits twice in the same year. I've had similar experiences with Sanguinelli Blood Oranges.

AnotherAlterEgo ///Dont worry about me better aske a good look at yourself. Ill be just fine without you as I have been in the Past..Dale

AAE, that's exactly what happened to my kumquat..it didn't have a chance... Nasty, nasty icy weather.,.
Your front porch must look welcoming, not to mention smell fragrant when citrus are in bloom.

Toni - After a few years of looking poorly, my front entry is finally welcoming. I have a Calamondin, Satsuma Owari, Improved Meyer Lemon, Kaffir Lime, Nagami Kumquat and Buddha's Hand Citron that line the sidewalk as it reaches the front porch area. There is also a 3-ft. brick wall behind two of the trees which separates my porch area from the front lawn. Since planting bareroot roses in early spring, I now have yellow English shrub roses peeking over the top. I have plans to plant two more roses, where the sidewalk starts from my driveway (around the corner from my front porch). I might add a couple more citrus to the sitting area, but I'm not sure which. And, my wife is pressuring me to put the existing trees in attractive containers. Right now they are in 25-gallon grip-lip nursery containers. So, it's a never-ending work in progress.

AAE, are any of the citrus you mentioned hardy to TX? Will you keep in containers or plant in the earth?
Oh Oh, who's going to win the container battle? You or the wife? LOL..does she know anything about citrus/roses?
I'd like to see pics of your plants some time.
What is the difference between English Shrub Roses from American roses, or is there a difference?
25 gallon pot are huge. How much water does it take to fill one pot? Toni

Toni - It depends on whom you ask, regarding hardiness. This is the first time in many years that I have actually grown citrus at home. I have no intention of building a hobby greenhouse or moving furniture, to accomodate any of these trees. Worse case scenario, I have to drag them onto my covered porch and hang a heat lamp. I have some smaller stuff, like the Australian Finger Lime, that I can grow on a kitchen counter or in my study.
And I've already lost the battle (with my wife), because I brought all of these citrus home in the first place. So, we'll have big (expensive) decorative containers at some point in the near future.

Ego ..Welcome to the land of the little people...Dale

AAE, how tall do Australian Finger Limes grow? Are they really tiny? What about its fruit?
Oh now you've got me going with that citrus..lol..but I still want a kumquat and I promised dh I wouldn't buy anymore plants this year.

What type of decorative containers will you be using? Clay, ceramic, plastic? If you're artistic, perhaps you can paint pics on the pots they're in now,.LOL..
I've about 19 African Violets and find they grow and flower best in 4" plastic growing pots..Dh said I should buy decorative pots..Well, after a few 'debates' I went to Frank's (2 yrs ago) and bought ceramic containers. I repotted in these pots, and though the AV do well, I think they did a bit better when planted in their original pots..
So, it's nice, healthy plants vs containers..I care more about a plant than I do the pot. All my citrus are in growing pots, some were given to me, and others bought a treequest.
You have another option..You can keep citrus in their growing pot, then buy a decorative outter container, 2 sizes larger, place brick/styrofoam sheets on the bottom then set the growing pot in the outter container atop the brick/styrofoam..I used to do this all the time with medium to large plants. It's a thought anyway.

Dale, what's the land of little people? Toni

Toni..If you have a Question about my past remark! E-Mail me this fourm is for learning an teaching, And not Debate

Dale, I didn't mean to debate, argue..I really didn't understand what you meant by land of little people..I thought perhaps I missed something in another post and surely didn't mean to offend anyone..and don't plan to make fun of ppl w/any type of problems.

BTW, what happens to the original post of top 5 plants? LOL

And ..And your point is!! E-mail me

Toni - The Australian Finger Lime is basically a thorny moss plant, with tiny fingerling fruit. It's more of a novelty. I'm not sure which pots we'll end up with, but I'm partial to the ultralight versions. And I might go with something slightly larger and just insert my big black nursery containers, like you said.
Dale - I'm flattered that you would welcome me to your world. But, like Toni, I'd like to know more about the Dale R. world of "little people". Do we congregate in Wakefield? I'm not so sure I want to be in your world. LOL. Take care, my Michigander friend. And feel free to call on me (or my alter ego) if you need some help with your little trees.

Back to the topic, my fab five are:
1. Owari Satsuma - delicious, convenient snack food to bring to work or anywhere. These can be eaten while working at my desk.
2. Washington Navel - my favorite from my childhood (which I seem to be reentering)
3. Meyer Lemon - nice lemon flavor and productive
4. Louisiana Sweet - wonderful juice orange
5. Tangerine - great flavor and different from oranges and satsumas

Yeah man, top five citrus. Not worst five cat fights of the new millenium.

Well.. hmmm.. I guess.. I'd have to say.. my top 5 citrus would be... one that would produce enough that I could at least DECREASE the amount of citrus I buy for my 4 kids.
Oldest child.. Lemon.. the tarter the better.. MMM pucker power!!!
second child.. umm Clementines. she loves the sweetness. she is also the one that found the seeds.. I think that has made her excited.. so few seeds.. and she was lucky!!!
third child.. key limes she loves cooking with them..
fourth child.. he likes navel orange
I like Miewa Kumquats!!! can pop entire thing in mouth.. I started eating citrus rinds when I was young.. kumquats are great!!!
I could probably buy a bag of each for each child more than once a week.. and GOODNESS OJ lasts about 2 seconds in this house..
By the time these seedlings are ready to fruit I'll probably have grand kids.. but.. oh well.. at least their kids will enjoy FRESH fruit off the trees.. And their parents will know how to care for them.. I'm hoping to make a trip to buy citrus trees this spring.. when do citrus trees usually get in the nurseries Huston area? I have a friend down there I been thinking of going to see her.. and have a good excuse.. I'll have to create a post closer to time I'm gonna make the trip and ask for Huston "local" suggestions..

Gina *BabyBlue*

I am looking for a mature, maybe 3-5 year old finger lime tree to ship to VA so if anyone knows someone, please please email me. I would LOVE to find a grafted tree mature and fruiting age. I would pay well for this.

Usually these trees are sold in mid-spring, long after the bare-root season. The new citrus growth fluses are being displayed, have darkened green a bit, and so attracts more buyers.

Joe was that reply to me?

If anyone has a source please email me. I will also trade for them.

1 satsuma i have three types
2 navel three types
3 meyer lemon
4 blood orange
5 ponkan
and on and on i love them all i have over 30 and counting all in pots and looking for more

Oh wow. How to choose....

First and second place are easy for me, after that it gets tough...

1 Daisy tangerine - its so juicy I eat 3 fresh then bring in a bag full to juice every day. Here they are ripe about Thanksgiving time and sweet as candy by Christmas

2 Kinnow tangerine - picks right up where Daisy left off but later season, lasting through May (but only because I planted so many trees!)

Now the hard ones...

3 I'd say key lime to, irrisistable as a maranade (with salt and pepper) for meat to BBQ, and a hundred other things

4 coctail "grapefruit" which is not a grapfruit, it's just big like one.

oh my..... k .... well.....

5 fukumota navel - no wait... um well ok I'll go with that lol
early, a bit bigger than Washington, but we really don't grow good ones here in the desert so should pick one I can grow well, like Rio red grapefruit, but .... only 5???????????

great topic!
Arthur the Date Palm Guy

Arthur: Thanks for your input.
I put the Daisy tangerine as my number one list to buy.
I have a kinnow grafted to a branch but I think it will take years before I can get a bagful so I put that on the list also.
Thanks!
Yes, this is a great topic. I learn something everyday.
Benny

Oh to have more room in my yard for citrus!

Favorites:
Moro Blood Oranges
AZ Sweet Oranges
Lisbon Lemon
Mineola Tangelos
Mexican Lime

I want to add a Cara Cara...best orange I have ever tasted. Only mentioned once above. If you get a chance to eat a Cara Cara fresh off the tree..... WOW!

here are my top 5 favorites
1.calamondin
2.kaffir lime
3.satsumas
4.limes
5.meyer/ponderosa lemons

I have a

1) Miewa Kunquat fruit picked green-orange to beat squirrels. Taste OK

2) seed grown Fukushu Kumquats 2 feet tall each, no fruit but hopeful.

3) New Zealand lemonade tree that just started flowering. Very hopeful.

4) Cuban Shaddock rooted cutting with dead Meyer scion. Fruit was very tasty and seedy. I picked it while it was green not knowing it would turn yellow when ripe.

MrTexas Where are you. I miss reading your posts. I enjoyed them very much

Lemons of any variety except Ponderosa. Ours have NO juice. But I use lemon in EVERYTHING. Love it!

Wow - a thread that is still relevant and active after a nice long nap of 10 years!

I love the following top five- not necessarily in order - love them all:

Flame Grapefruit, Page Orange, Okistu Satsuma, Meyer Lemon, Persian Lime, Moro Blood Orange - OK, that's six!

Old thread, but very informative. Interesting how preferences vary. I am still too much of a newbie to name five, but I do love my Meyer lemon!

Mine would be , being in a cold climate I lean towards plants that produce fruit or otherwise useful in our zone :

Meyer Lemon - Lemonades / squeeze on salads , meat

Nagami Kumquat - to make preserves , love the tart zing to it .

Cedro ( Italian Citron ) - make Succade n infuse in Vodka

Bouqet de fleurs Orange- fills the room with fragrance , actually I like all the orange trees for their blossoms .

Kaffir Lime - use often for thai cooking

Have yet to develop 5

The two that I must have are

1. Oro Blanco pomelo easy to grow

2. Meyer lemon only cause it grows in a pot well

Next three would be nice

3. Kaffer lime trying to grow from seed for leaves

4. Valencia orange for some fresh juice

5. Tie between bitter orange, mexican lime and eureka lemon.

Bitter orange is the best cooking orange and nice fresh juice

Mexican lime is best for cocktails, margaritas, salsas and guacamole

Eureka lemon is the flavor of salad dressings, lemon pie, and that old fashion lemon flavor.