Hardy Orange loves pruning?

I've had a hardy orange tree growing in the ground for years now.
It has thrived, producing loads of thorns...
After working around this hazards for so long,this spring I had enough.
I turned it from a porcupine into a spiky lollipop.
The battle left me with scars, but it also freed up a lot of planting space.
The plant, seemed fine.

Turns out it's better than fine, it put on a huge amount of blooms!

Is it a flying dragon orange? How cold can you get in winter time? The fruits are said to be inedible but you can grow lots of seedlings as cold hardy rootstock.

I have a citrus tree similar looking, very thorny and very painful. It rarely produces any oranges and when it does, they are super sour. I was talking to an arborist and he said that my tree was overtaken by its rootstock. He said I should cut my tree down and plant something else in its place. I just wanted to let you know.

It is flying dragon, a dwarf I think.
I've tasted the fruit from a now removed local tree.
It was small,sour and seedy, but just fine for a sour citrus flavor.
I am always thinking about ways to start a local artisan drinks business, and a strong citrus flavor would be amazing.

With luck, I'll figure out what makes this plant produce, decide what to do with the crop of oranges, and then  I'll figure some cool things to do with the waste products.
Orange oil extracted from the peels, for instance.
The horribly thorny prunings are going into the biochar retort.

I planted some of these, ("trifoliate orange" is the name I was told) and the thorns were too scary for me after a few years so I took them out
The friend I got them from made a nice marmalade from the fruit though.
I think they would be great for hedges.

I had never heard of this flying dragon tree, thank you for letting me know. I imagine you have to wear thick clothes when pruning!

Holy cow those are some impressive thorns.  I've never seen one of those.

As big as they are, it's the fine points that make the thorns terrible to deal with.
I didn't wear long sleeves, and my arms were covered in scratches that got inflamed before they healed over.
Leather work gloves helped, but I still have a little spot on my palm where a thorn went strait through the leather.

Overall, not great, which is why I pruned it so hard.
I'll take the thorns IF I can get a  yield.
Otherwise, I'm pulling it out of the ground.
Well, that's my plan anyway.
I'm a sucker for vigorous plants, I've even let box elder grow!

my recollection is that the peels of those trifoliate oranges are amazingly aromatic. if you or someone in your community has the ability to distill essential oils, that would be the most efficient way to use them. i could imagine a tiny drop of that in an artisan drink could be a sort of magic ingredient.