brettay, thanks for the recommendations - Kishu is new to me and I already have Algerian Clementine which I love, so I might get that too. Could you please share what other varieties of citrus you are successful with in marin? It is definitely warmer than Marin in the south bay, so maybe I can emulate your success by copying your list of citrus, if you don't mind?

Here's a list of varieties that is somewhat helpful:

Obviously lemons and limes will do fine most places in the bay area. Variegated Eureka is an interesting choice with attractive foliage and unusual stripped fruit.

Orange: Trovita does not require the same heat as most other orange cultivars. It is flavorful and does not have many seeds. Cara Cara Navel orange has pigmented fruit and is spoken of very highly by many people. Mine is very young and has yet to bear fruit.

Mandarins: Kishu, Gold Nugget and most cultivars of satsuma are probably the best choices. Kishu and Owari Satsuma will ripen very close to one another. I highly recommend tasting satsuma before purchasing it. Many people love them, but I am not a big fan. I much prefer the flavor of the clementine-type mandarin. The Gold Nugget ripens in late winter/early spring and will keep on the tree through most of the summer. It also requires less heat than most mandarins.

Blood orange: Moro is the most colorful and Tarocco is the most flavorful. Moro ripens consistently in this region. Tarocco needs more heat than Moro and may be a bit more spotty in its ability to fully ripen here.

Oro blanco is a pommelo/grapefruit hybrid that requires much less heat than traditional grapefruits.

Hope this helps.

-Brett

But if you already have a navel, then I would recommend a non-navel orange, someone above mentionned trovita, it's a good flavored orange for me, but there is also shamouti, the Israeli orange, which is much more exotic, slightly spicy and sweet. Blood oranges are good too, but more sour.

There are also acideless oranges that are delicious if you're into that sort of thing. I like them a lot, but many people are so used to acidity in oranges that they don't like the acidless citrus varieties. Vaniglia is an acideless blood orange worth growing.

On the mandarin front, I recommend the fremont tangerine, it's delicious, and unusually flavored.

But the homegrown are so much better, common or not. Our Valencias were superb, better than any we've bought at the store. Also a lot cheaper. ;)