My grandfather passed away early last year. He had beautiful orange trees growing at his home in Phoenix, Arizona that I had admired as long as I can remember. I wanted to hold onto that memory. Just before his home was sold, I took several seeds from the oranges and flew them back home to Houston with me. It took a while, but a few weeks later, I had little baby sprouts which I transplanted to little pots. That was almost a year ago and they have very slowly grown.

My hope is that one day, I will have a tree just like my grandfather's tree. And a part of him will live on. I have read that trees grown from seeds will not bear good fruit or will not be as healthy as those grown from grafts. So I am wondering what my best options would be for turning my grandfather's wonderful trees into trees that are equally wonderful. Should I buy another tree and graft these baby trees to it when they are large enough? This is my first experience with citrus and a sentimental endeavor.

Additional info: I live in Houston. I think that the oranges are Valencia oranges because I collected the seeds in early May from oranges on his trees in Phoenix. My research tells me that the Valencia is the only common variety in that area that still has fruit on the trees in May.

Here's a photo of my baby trees.