Citrus | Planting Diaries

The beginning of February is the height of the season for citrus fruits. My favourite of these is the blood orange and part of the attraction as well as the taste is the paper that some of these fruits are wrapped in. Typically a box of oranges will contain a few wrapped fruit, adding to the overall attractiveness of the container. The wrapping also turns an orange into a small gift.

I’m heartened to see that Pinterest has many collectors of these vernacular advertising artworks. Mark Denton Esq has some particularly beautiful examples and I include a link to these at the end of this post. The papers in my own collection are mostly from Sicily which is a traditional centre for cultivation of the blood orange and are often (but not always) red like the flesh of the fruit they enclose. The central image is always circular so when wrapped around the fruit the roundness of the orange is emphasised.

The first design shows a luscious looking orange, against a golden sunburst design – suggesting the rays that ripened the fruit or maybe the burst of flavour experienced from the first mouthful of the orange itself. Other designs include an antelope, a red heart set in a golden sunburst and a red rose. Agri Etna’s wrapper shows a view of the great volcano with images of strawberries and prickly pear fruits – presumably also produced by these growers.

The red tinged flesh of the blood orange is caused by the presence of anthocyanin which is an anti-oxidant found in many fruits, but unusual in the orange family. The red colour develops when the fruits are exposed to low night temperatures. I wonder if this might explain why some of the fruits are unevenly coloured inside – perhaps the side of the fruit most exposed to cold on the tree develops a deeper coloured flesh?

In the UK most of our blood oranges are from Valencia or Sicily, but they are also widely grown in California. These are not always the largest or sweetest oranges – but have a pleasing intensity to their flavour. When we stayed in Venice a few years ago the hotel served blood orange juice for breakfast that was dark – almost beetroot coloured. This juice may well have been from the Moro blood orange – a relatively new variety with the deepest colour and a sharp taste.

Not always the easiest fruit to find in supermarkets, our local Turkish grocer is currently selling three for a pound. Bargain!

Mark Denton’s Fruit Wrappers

(See also Mark’s potato sack collection!)

The Blood Orange – Wikipedia

Title page

Nederlantze Hesperides was published in 1676 by Johannes Commelin and describes the cultivation of citrus trees in the Netherlands with illustrations of orange and lemon varieties that were grown in the late seventeenth century. Also illustrated are the magnificent orangeries the trees were kept in over winter, including one at the botanical garden in Leiden, and others belonging to private individuals including the author.

These substantial buildings have rows of south facing windows, and stoves to keep the temperature above freezing in winter. In the first orangery pictured, at Leiden, a gardener appears to be bringing buckets for watering, while a lady and gentleman admire the trees. A boy, possibly rather bored with the garden outing, plays with a dog. Pieter de Wolf’s grand looking orangery is also shown in the summer, with the citrus trees arranged in orderly rows in front of it.

The containers the citrus trees were kept in are shown in detail with handles on either side so that they could be moved by means of poles into their winter quarters in the orangery and then back outside the following spring.

I love the way the illustrator Cornelis Kick has included a section of glossy leaves as well as the fruits and his cross sections reveal fruits with thick rinds, some with thin, some with irregular segments, and some perfectly symmetrical. The glass container (a wine bottle?) containing the lemon blossom has a simplicity and at the same time locates the image in 17th century Holland.

Johannes or Jan Commelin (1629 – 1692) was a trader in medicinal plants and was invited in 1682 to establish a Hortus Medicus or medicinal garden in Amsterdam. His father and brother ran a book publishing house. As well as writing Nederlantze Hesperides, Commelin edited other books about botany.

If you wanted to source citrus trees today, the Citrus Centre in Sussex has 30 years experience of cultivating these plants and a wide choice of varieties including blood oranges, a special favourite of mine. I’m fascinated by their varigated lemon which looks quite similar to one pictured in Commelin’s book.

Limoen en Oranje Boomen 02a