Since you don't mention them I assume you have not heard of the California organization specializing in growing tropical fruits. There is a chapter near you of the California Rare Fruit Growers who's members would be happy to help you find the plants locally. www.crfg.org will bring you to a list of chapters in California. Al

San Gabriel Nursery in San Gabriel has had lychee and logan trees on and off over the years. Call to see if they have them in stock. Papaya Nursery in the San Fernando Valley has them as well, but are a bit more expensive. It's almost more cost effective to order the trees from Florida, pay the shipping and inspection certificate fees, than to buy locally.
Rambutan are very hard to grow, really need a greenhouse to maintain the needed humidity.
The California Rare Fruit Growers will be holding a "Festival of Fruit" at the Fullerton Arboritum September 19th and 20th. There are usually vendors there selling unusual tropical plants you will find no where else. You might want to talk to some people there for more information.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fullerton

Try Green Mart in Orange. There is a nursery near you in Westminster, Garden Grove, or maybe Midway city that specializes in Asian tropical fruit trees, but I can't remember the name. Maybe somebody in the Tropical Plants or Tropical Fruit forums will know.

Here is a link that might be useful: Green Mart

Thank you for the replies.
altadenamara: I go to csuf for over 4 years now. Irony! plus I don't have school that day :)
-I will definitely give that a try, and maybe I'll sneak in the back gate so I don't have to pay the entrance fee lol.
You are right about the rambutan comment, I have done research wikipedia, purdue, rambutan.com + other websites and it doesn't look promising to invest my time in it. My priorities are 1) Longan, then 2)Lychee.
holedigger and calistoga: I am looking at your linked website as I am writing this follow up.

Thanks again for your information.

The Orange County Chapter of the California Rare Fruit Growers meet at the Orange County Fairgrounds, the third Thursday evening of every month (except July) at 7:30pm.

July 18th meeting is celebrating the Year of the Avocado presented by Julie Frink, curator of the South Coast Research Station, and her associates. Their subject matter will include: 'Correcting bad information on: things we have read, statements we have heard and questions we have been asked.' Attending a meeting you will meet other fruit enthusiasts, backyard orchardists, and some really great people. And you will have the opportunity to taste some fruits grown here in Orange County. We would love to see you there and anyone else interested in attending!

Over in Fountain Valley, Roger Meyer has his home nursery, and also tends to his Valley Center nursery. He is VERY knowledgeable on lychees, longans, and many other fruits.
His email address is xotcfruit@yahoo.com and phone is 714-839-0796 to request appointment to visit nursery. He is also a vendor at the Festival of Fruit, CSUF. Alex Sieber of Papaya Tree will also be there and he normally has both lychees and longans. Steve Spangler of Exotica Nursery down south also grows both and will be a vendor.

In addition to Green Mart, Mimosa Nursery over in an Anaheim residential neighborhood also carries lychees and longans. To me they are both pretty pricey but have a beautiful product.

At our CRFG booth at the OC Fair we had rambutans supplied by Melissas. Although we had a tremendous variety of fruits, the rambutan and coconut were the two that we told the public could not successfully be grown here.

And that was a great link altadenamara supplied for the annual Festival of Fruit. Home garden tours begin on Wednesday, Sept 17th for all those registered. And there is an optional bus trip to Melissas with a few seats still available. The Festival should be great fun, educational, and an opportunity to purchase some real unusual fruiting plants you wouldn't normally come across and meet some other 'fruit nuts'.

Pam

Great information! I just wanted to mention I have used papayatree nursery and I like them but it is nice to know of other options for tropical trees and bushes. I got my kaffir lime from them.

Altadenamara, I am also in Altadena.

hi,
i have longan seeds if you want some....... just let me know.
LA

mimosa nursery, just east of Knotts berry farm, second street south of La Palma. next north south street on each side are magnolia and west side is Lee. Under the powerlines, I don't have a phone number or precise address. . Every time I've been there they have several in stock.

Try Green Mart - he sells small trees at the 99 Market, and is located in Orange - no too far from you. I bought a real nice Michelia Alba for a great price. =^,,^=

Here is a link that might be useful: Green Mart

It was Mimosa nursery that I thought was in Westminster/ Midway City. I was only there once. They had an excellent selection of tropical fruit trees, I almost bought a Jujube the day I was there.

The Follwoing Nursery and its links will have all the tropical and exotics you could wish for and the do mail order .

1) Gaia Yoga Nursery in Hawaii
2) Montoso Nursery in Puerto Rico

They both have plenty!

Or are in Southern California: Both have Lychees, Rambutans and more

1) Ongs Nuserys - In San Diego Ca
2) Exotica Rare fruit Nursery - In Vista, CA.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gaia Yoga Nursery in Hawaii

If they had a guarantee on their trees, which they don't, I would have returned all the fruit trees I bought at Mimosa. Only one that finally did good was a Meiwa Kumquat that I bought there many years ago.

Try H&H nursery in Lakewood,they have very healthy plants and the facility is really organized and clean.They are very knowledgeable also...Last time i was there they have longan,cherimoyas,mangos,several variety of guavas,asian pears,and nectarines.

I just bought my tropicals online so I could get varieties I wanted. I have mangos and cherimoya

Here is a link that might be useful: growing tropicals in nor cal

Shameless plug Tammy. I should have thought of that!
I had some terible Mango luck this year-the largest just dried out and fell over. This had been a very fast growing
tree(Manila)for two years,flowering last February 08..then,last June 08,went into a sudden decline,seemed to have started to recover..then again in spring 09 gave its last exhale!
Another was hurt last winter by frost,has respouted six main trunks of a foot.I think I'm going for a multi-trunk Mango bush as a hedge against frost. Might work.
I do know that some cover in winter is a must this far north.Only for mid Dec-Jan from what I have seen so far. They can take cool..but near freezing ,even without an actual 32F,for too long will kill also.
Cherimoya in comparison are hardy as apples. I have seedling now on 4-5 years,twice broken to the ground by my old dog-and it still has come back. So now I'm on the lookout for a large grafted plant. BTW, My first try with Cherimoya was from seed in the early 80's(Safeway sp.) I t bore sweet fruit for years until 1990's great freeze.

Stan. Do u have a blog? Would love to see it. What do you think happened to ur manilla?

Root rot in summer means the evil phytophera. At the time of planting that was the best spot I could find. Too much shade at the soil level didnt help. I have expanded my growing area since then. The new Mango will go great in summer..winter,I could porch it. The original has many shoots once again,and it's been planted in ground two summers now. After 07 it went from 9' to 0'.stump sprouted last spring to reach 3' by fall...again cut down this winter by frost. Now under 1' it could be a bushy 3' by fall again. This winter Tammy, it will be covered Dec-Jan.
btw,The original 6" radius trunk looks huge by bay area standards..what could be.

My advice to vael:Order what you want. If you want Rambutan and the only source has them for $70..order and enjoy them. June is ending,and time to get something that exotic acclimated-even to mildest soucal-is something you dont want to waste.
And speaking as the voice of experience, years from now -you will have wished you had ordered that Rambutan,grown it up in a large pot, sheltered it in winter..and in 2015,been the FIRST Californian to pick a Rambutan.