Heres a little chart showing from highest to lowest the heat needed to growcitrus. Great thing to think about for heat requirements both in and outside to get the sweetest and juiciest, best tasting... the heat.. IS needed!:)

CITRUS HEAT REQUIREMENTS (from highes to lowest )

Limes (true Mexican)*

Kumquat

Pummelo

Grapefruit

Sweet Lime

Tangelo

Mandarin Oranges

Sour Orange

Blood Orange

Sweet Orange

Lemons and Bearss Lime

Meyer Lemon

Blood Orange? Whats that???

blood oranges are a pigmented orange. when cut open, hte insides are brightly colored... or richly colored like blood, red topurple. flesh, juice. the peel of the orange can have a reddish hint to it as well. I bought a morro orange the other day and the peel had a hint of purple and the inside was bright reddih purple. I juiced it for breakfast. imagine purple OJ

The purple sounds cool.

Where I live, they sell bottled juice from blood oranges in the 7-Eleven, but the juice that I see looks pinky instead of dark and deep. The taste of the juice is less tart, less acidic, and way sweeter. Actually, I did not like it at all. The turn-off was in the name and it just went bad from there.

the flavor is definatly different than what one may think... but its still good. I rather eat it as an orange than drink the juice. It would be good in fancy drinks as a decoration

As a decoration? You mean having slices of blood orange in like a punch bowl? That might be neat. Is there a way to tell whether the colour will be deep enough before you cut it? I mean, for example, do firm ones generally have better colour, etc?

wht I meant as decoration, slices or wedges on a fruit platter as garnishes. slices in a fruit punch would be cool too. great color.

Not sure how to tell color will be deep enough. I know the ones I bought, the skin was beginning to show pule to it... but that could be normal too.. even when not really purple inside

Ah, now I know whatyou mean about decoration.

But what do you mean by "beginning to show pule to it"? I'm not so familiar with that term . Call me a citrus neophyte.

purple. is what I meant to type. missed a few letters. my keyboard is just a hassel... half the keys dont always work right

I like the Sweet Orange, some times Oranges tastes sour and some times sweet. Maybe the tastes differ because of Oranges availabe in season and unseason. Better eat it in season as we can taste complete sweet in it.:)

there are many types of oranges, both sweet and unsweet. Oranges cn only be gotten in the season. there is no off season. Citrus fruits are unlike others. they can ONLY rippen on the tree (not lemons, the industry chemically rippens them)

Oranges can taste sweeter or not.. based onariety and the weather conditions. Need the heat to rippen and sweeten