05/29/2026
As we conclude our Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month celebration, we want to feature horticulturist Lue Gim Gong, also known as the Citrus Wizard. 💫🍊
Lue Gim Gong was born in Canton, China, in the 1860s to farmers. He travelled to the United States in his teenage years and got a job at a shoe factory in Massachusetts where he met Fannie Burlingame, a volunteer teacher who took him under her wing and encouraged his agricultural talents.
Gong spent a lot of time working in Burlingame’s garden and greenhouse. His mother had taught him how to crosspollinate and graft stock. He eventually went to Florida to live with the Burlingame family on orange groves. He was familiar with oranges because he had worked with them in China. In the winter of 1894-1895, Florida experienced horrible freezes that affected the crops. This inspired Gong to create a frost-resistant strain of orange. He successfully created a hardy orange which was named the Lue Gim Gong Orange. For this work, the American Pomological Society awarded him the Silver Wilder Medal in 1911, the first time this award was given for citrus.
He also developed new varieties of apples, tomatoes, peaches, and grapefruit. He lived by the proverb, “No one should live in this world for himself alone, but to do good for those who come after him.” His ground-breaking work and desire to do good for future generations changed the future of agriculture forever. Lue Gim Gong died in 1925 and is buried in DeLand, Florida.
Sources: usda.gov, blogs.rollins.edu
