Hodge's Family Nursery Plant Finder

Other Names:  Honey Tangerine, Mandarin Orange

Description:

An attractive, mostly thornless selection that bears small, sweet orange-yellow fruit that is easy to peel; spring flowers are quite fragrant; a nice landscape plant, as a hedge or screen; great container plant for the patio, or indoors in colder climates

Edible Qualities

Murcott Mandarin is a large shrub that is typically grown for its edible qualities, although it does have ornamental merits as well. It produces small orange fruit with yellow overtones which are typically harvested when mature. The fruits have a sweet taste and a juicy texture.

The fruit are most often used in the following ways:

• Fresh Eating
• Cooking
• Baking
• Preserves
• Juice-Making
• Sauces

Features & Attributes

Murcott Mandarin features showy clusters of fragrant white star-shaped flowers at the ends of the branches from early to mid spring. It has dark green foliage with hints of bluish-green. The glossy oval leaves remain dark green throughout the winter. It features an abundance of magnificent orange berries with yellow overtones from late fall to late winter.

This is a multi-stemmed evergreen shrub with an upright spreading habit of growth. Its average texture blends into the landscape, but can be balanced by one or two finer or coarser trees or shrubs for an effective composition. This is a relatively low maintenance plant, and is best pruned in late winter once the threat of extreme cold has passed. It is a good choice for attracting birds, bees and butterflies to your yard. Gardeners should be aware of the following characteristic(s) that may warrant special consideration;

• Disease

Aside from its primary use as an edible, Murcott Mandarin is sutiable for the following landscape applications;

• Accent
• Hedges/Screening
• Orchard/Edible Landscaping
• Container Planting

Planting & Growing

Murcott Mandarin will grow to be about 15 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 10 feet. It has a low canopy with a typical clearance of 1 foot from the ground, and is suitable for planting under power lines. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for 50 years or more.

This shrub is quite ornamental as well as edible, and is as much at home in a landscape or flower garden as it is in a designated edibles garden. It does best in full sun to partial shade. It does best in average to evenly moist conditions, but will not tolerate standing water. This plant should be periodically fertilized throughout the active growing season with a specially-formulated acidic fertilizer. It is not particular as to soil type or pH. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. This is a selected variety of a species not originally from North America.

Murcott Mandarin is a good choice for the edible garden, but it is also well-suited for use in outdoor pots and containers. Its large size and upright habit of growth lend it for use as a solitary accent, or in a composition surrounded by smaller plants around the base and those that spill over the edges. It is even sizeable enough that it can be grown alone in a suitable container. Note that when grown in a container, it may not perform exactly as indicated on the tag - this is to be expected. Also note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.