Ok, I looked up the plant online, I believe it is a Calabazilla. It is a California Native, although it can be found in many other states as well. Quote from one site "Calabazilla takes its common name from the spanish word for the squash plant, calabaza. Like our garden squash and other gourds, calabazilla has long trailing vines that branch out widely. The large, bright yellow flowers appear in both sexes on the same plant, with the male flowers being more showy and larger and the female flowers giving way to the gourd that follows. The odorous foliage, flower and gourd are covered in hairs. The leaves are quite large, up to 10 inches long, grayish blue and triangle-shaped. The male flowers are bell-shaped with 5 sepals and are up to 5 inches long. It blooms throughout the summer, from May through September. The gourd is inedible, about 4 inches in diameter, and smooth and green with white stripes. You may recall another species of the gourd family featured in this Plant of the Month page a few months back, Wild Cucumber (Marah mmacrocarpus). In addition to the viney appearance, both plants share in common a very large root. Native people found several uses for this plant, including using the root or pulp for curing skin ailments, the fruit as a soap, and the hull of the gourd for anything from rattles to utensils." - http://www.smmtc.org/plant_of_the_month_200707_Calabazilla.htm Here is a link that might be useful: Some more pictures

Fruit Berry and Nut Inventory says it takes 500 hours of chilling so I guess you may be onto something if they are correct. They say Santa Rosa is an excellent pollinator for it as well. For S. CA they recommend it for the inland areas only so I guess you may have to lose that one. If you bought it from a nursery nearby you certainly would appear to have a legitimate complaint although at this point a refund is as unlikely as it is inadequate. As grown here in southeastern NY it definitely is a late bearer though.

There are many contradictory USDA zone maps about, but the correct ones show no zone 11 in California, and there is no zone 11. Zones 10b are very rare, but parts of Santa Monica could indeed be zone 10b. Either way, what do you mean by 'Areca palm'? Areca palm is a common name for Dypsis lutescens, a very easy and commonly grown palm in southern California (I can even grow them here in zone 9b in San Fernando Valley, though they don't tend to look as nice as those grown in Santa Monica). OR, Areca is also a genus of palm which is a very tropical genus, of which there really is only one species (triandra) that can survive anywhere in California reliably for more than 2-3 years (and still tends to look pretty bad). I have seen both for sale at Home Depot, though only seen Areca triandra offered a few times. The other is a staple for them, and is commonly sold as an indoor palm, though it performs far better outdoors (struggles mightily with low light situations) in California. Excellent and beautiful palm... it will look incredible in 10-20 years.

Hey Phase, long time no forum. I finally got my Sweetheart into the ground and it seems a lot happier but there are no fruit this year as I am giving it some organic fertilizers to stimulate vegetative growth. I'm so glad to see your tree is holding so many fruit. I think most people that grow Lychees already knows this but WIND is one of the biggest enemy to newly emerging Lychee leaves. The smaller the plant, the more prone to wind damage it is. I recently planted my Sweetheart, Kwa Luk (Hanging Green) and my Kaimana into the ground. I also picked up a Groff and an Ohia Pink Lychee. I need to build some sort of wind protection for it. Your Mango does look like it may need more water, how often are you watering? It could also be salt buildup in the soil or overfertilization or maybe even wind damage. Please keep us updated on the progress of your Sweetheart. I must say, you have the most productive Sweetheart Lychee tree that I know of in SoCal! Keep up the great growing! Simon