Grapefruit

Golden Special

Golden Special is a New Zealand-selected grapefruit listed by Waimea Nurseries (GRAPEFRUIT Golden Special) and sold by Southern Woods, Leafland and Thirkettle Nurseries. Waimea describes juicy, sweet and tangy fruit with few seeds on a heavy-bearing tree that forms a large tree. The catalog's only grapefruit is Morrison Seedless, so the locally selected Golden Special, bred for NZ conditions, is the highest-priority grapefruit gap.

Morrison Seedless

Morrison Seedless is a New Zealand heritage grapefruit with a story: it was the first grapefruit cultivar in the country, brought from Sir George Grey's Kawau Island home and given to John Morrison, a nurseryman of Warkworth, whose name it carries. The tree is a large, rounded grower needing the space grapefruit traditionally command. Fruit are large, white-fleshed and seedless, with yellow skin and pale juicy flesh that is sweet-sharp in classic grapefruit style, excellent for fresh eating (halved for breakfast) and for juicing. In New Zealand it harvests through the winter-spring citrus season, Mid on the relative grapefruit scale. Grapefruit keep well both on the tree and picked, and keeping quality is good. Some small New Zealand orchards grow Morrison Seedless as their only grapefruit, a testament to its reliability. Plant in the warmest sunny position available in fertile, free-draining soil, water steadily in dry spells, mulch, and feed generously in the growing season; grapefruit are among the more cold-sensitive citrus, so frost protection matters in marginal districts. Self-fertile.

Star Ruby

Star Ruby is a red-fleshed seedless grapefruit listed by Waimea Nurseries (GRAPEFRUIT Star Ruby) and sold by Citrus Direct NZ. A deep red-fleshed, juicy, low-seed variety prized for dessert eating and juicing, it gives NZ growers the pigmented grapefruit option alongside the white-fleshed Morrison Seedless already in the catalog. Citrus Direct lists it in its grapefruit collection for home orchards.