Easy to grow and at its best right now

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, 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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