Dunstan Honey Orange

[mikkel]

Is it still around?

from the old forum:

stanthecitruholic

Maybe Ned or Keith Endres can help me out here. They were with me when we visited with Mr Bob Zendher in Summerville, SC a couple of years ago. It was there that I first saw and tasted the Dunstan Honey Orange. If my memory serves me correctly, He said that he obtained it from Major Collins in Tifton Georgia. Major Collins had obtained the tree from Doctor Dunstan of Florida who was trying to develop more cold hardy citrus after some of the damaging freezes had killed back much of the mainstream citrus types. I may be wrong but I believe that his family ( Dr Dunstans) has continued to operate in the nursery business and now is called Chestnut Hill Nurseries. A search engine should bring them up. I dont think they carry the Dunstan honey orange so there are just a few survivors of this strain scattered around the Southeast. Im glad Ned, Keith and myself were able to meet Mr Zendher and get some budwood from this tasty cultivar. Im not sure if there is any trifoliate in its parentage or not. There is no evidence of trifoliate in the leaf patterns. Just my remembrances of our conversation that Sunday afternoon a few years ago. 

citrusgrowersstatic.chez.com/web/viewtopicf00e.php

[Laaz]

Best bet is to contact Stan. Ned has closed his nursery.

[mikkel]

Stan said he don`t have it anymore. But maybe anyone else can remember this variety?

[Laaz]

Try Terry [e-mail] or Gaylord citrusgrowersv2.proboards.com/user/25, thy both collect hardy citrus.

[eyeckr]

I used to grow Dunstan Honey Orange. Good fruit but wasn't necessarily cold hardy enough for my area and eventually died off one winter years ago. Kinda wish I still had it around now though.

[mikkel]

Could it be that Dunstan Honey orange ist the same as Honey Changsha? I just read that Honey Changsha could be be a changsha x orange cross. Just an idea...

[Boris]

Feb 22, 2022 5:57:57 GMT -5 mikkel said:

Could it be that Dunstan Honey orange ist the same as Honey Changsha?

You probably read my topic about Robert Dunstan on tropicalfruitforum.com . I wrote there my assumption that these two varieties can be synonymous. I decided so after a little chat with Tom McClendon on twitter. But no one really denied it, nor confirmed it.

[mikkel]

yes that was what I read.

[eyeckr]

I have grown both Dunstan Honey Orange and Honey Changsha and they are totally different. I am not aware of any other Honey Changsha than the one that I selected and named from a few trees that I grew out locally here in Virginia Beach. In retrospect I wish I had named 'Honey Changsha' something else to lessen confusion with Robert Dunstan's Dunstan Honey Orange. In any case Honey Changsha is much more cold tolerant than DHO and still is growing in my 8a zone even after surviving a single event of at least -16C and many other below freezing temps.

[Boris]

Hello, eyeckr.
So you are the person from whom I needed to learn about the origin of Honey Changsha. This fall I got the fruits of Honey Changsha from Forward (which he once received from you) and I wanted to get to the bottom of the origin of this variety. I didn't find anything about it on the forums. I once asked Tom McClendon about this and he suggested that it was a variety bred by Robert Dunstan. Then I began to search about the varieties bred by Dunstan. Then I suggested that maybe Honey Changsha and Dunstan Honey Orange could be the same thing. I'm sorry I started this rumor. Can you tell us a little about the origin of Honey Changsha (although the topic is not about that)? Was it controlled pollination? Do you know the second parent?

[eyeckr]

Hi Boris, Dunstan Honey Orange is some sort of hybrid but Honey Changsha is not. It is simply a changsha mandarin that was selected from a number trees grown to fruiting between me and a late local citrus pioneer Bob Motyca here in Virginia. We noticed that the majority all the fruit from most changsha trees were usually close to insipid having not much flavor but I identified one tree that consistently produced juicy, sweet flavorful fruit. That is the one I selected and kept growing. By chance it happened to be pretty cold tolerant too. One year we got down to nearly 0F which killed it down to the roots but it came back as a small shoot that I promptly grafted up about 4 feet up on regular poncirus trifoliata. Since then it has continued to grow in my backyard. Sadly last year it was hacked back by our community landscapers so all of last years fruit were destroyed. Other than that it has done well. Luckily I was able to harvest some fruit from a back up potted grafted Honey Changsha though. This year the brix level was up to 17 which was pretty amazing.