The frost-tolerant Valencia oranges we know today were created in the early 20th century by Lue Gim Gong, a Chinese American horticulturist and farmer. Lue immigrated to the United States when he was 12 and worked throughout the US before moving to Florida to work on a fruit orchard. After a deep freeze in the winter of 1894-95 that killed almost all of the farm’s trees, Lue focused his cross-pollination efforts on creating frost-resistant fruit trees.