I don't have a citrus tree here in FL, but did have a Valencia orange tree in CA. The tree we bought was a dwarf, but grew to be a very, very large tree. The first year we had fruit, we were so excited, we just took the fruit off the tree and made juice. What we forgot was to let the fruit ripen on the tree and that took months we later found out. There wasn't enough sugar in the world to sweeten that first squeezed batch! Over the years we throughly enjoyed the fragrant blossoms, the sweet juice and the juicy oranges we sliced to eat. We didn't have nearly as many freezes in southern CA as we've had in Florida so we never really worried too much about fruit damage. Here there can be a number of freezes during the winter months, but a fairly young tree can be covered just like any other landscape plant. When the tree was abundant with fruit, it would attract creatures, rats to be specific. The beasties would munch on the sweet fruit, sometimes taking a bite, other times consuming a good portion of an orange.
By the way, we'd have enough fruit to provide the neighborhood with a couple of quarts of juice per family....it was the best juice I've ever had.
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