I don't know if they are any good, but Craigslist always has ads from a nursery in Temecula. Their prices appear to be very good on what they lists and a huge inventory. I've been tempted to go there myself for fruit trees, but haven't wanted to make that drive, yet.

Do you know which fruitless olive you want?

Majestic Beauty and Wilsonii are both fruitless but produce pollen and generally set fruit. The fruit usually grows up to pea size and then withers before falling from the tree. Since it is fairly dry when it falls, it usually doesn't make much mess.

Swan Hill has no pollen and does not set fruit. They are harder to find, are more expensive, but grow faster. If there are any walkways around them, there is no choice that they are EASILY worth the extra money to me. If you happen to run across a 36" box Swan Hill, let me know!

Plantsexpress.com has the great deal on Swan Hill but they only carry 24" box. My 24" Swan Hill planted 2 years ago is half the size of my 24" Wilsonii planted 10 years ago so I believe the speed of growth claims.

I've bought 8 Brisbane Box from 3 different nurseries. Plantexpress had the best of them in 24" box and they were the cheapest also at $177 delivered.

Armstrong Nursery has a store in Monrovia with a decent selection of Durling Citrus. They also have a store closer to you in La Canada but I don't know about their inventory.

Eloise, I'm willing to drive to Temecula if I can get a good selection and take home what I need. Thanks for the tip.

Greg, it's either Swan Hill or Wilsonii. The SH are quite a bit more money. Desert cities that have outlawed most olives because of their pollen accept both varieties so even Wilsonii must put out less pollen than a fruiting variety. I've read about their increased vigor, that's a plus, I'm too old to be planting slow growing trees. Since SH went off patent a while ago I'm surprised there aren't more available from other sources, although people can't use the name Swan Hill since they trademarked it.

I saw your comments about Plants Express in another Gardenweb thread. Your experience is encouraging but I'm troubled by the fact that when you google plants express looking for reviews and good/bad experiences that GW thread is the only thing that comes up. I'd like to know more about them but it isn't out there.

I had the two experiences with Plantsexpress. I have one more small experience, which is using their contact form recently to ask if they could get me a 36" box Swan Hill. I received no response, which isn't encouraging. I didn't ever get around to calling them. I'm assuming most people's experience with Plantsexpress is through the special order function at Home Depot. In general, I prefer to look at the specific material I'm buying and take it with me so I do understand your point.

Two local nurseries have 36" box Wilsonii sitting there. My interest in a third olive is directly upwind of my pool so I wouldn't take the Wilsonii for free. My house had a large fruiting olive just like most of the houses on my street. Mine had to be removed due to the neglect it received before I bought the house. Most people have them sprayed so they don't fruit. Even in decline, mine made a big mess from the fruit.

I bought the Wilsonii in 2003. I bought the Swan Hill from Plantsexpress in early 2013 so not quite 2 years ago. The Wilsonii flowers and produces pollen every two years or maybe three. Hard to tell as it took 4-5 years or so before it flowered the first time. When it flowers, it has pollen and develops fruit. If it has less pollen than the regular olives, I didn't notice. Hard to compare a a tree planted as a 24" box 10 years ago to the others that were planted as large trees 40 years ago.

From your area, I wouldn't go to Fallbrook or Vista. I do because my parents and some friends live in that area. From your area, I would go to Camarillo area. If you are travelling long distance to a nursery, it is a great deal of work to buy large plants and not have them beat up by wind in a pickup or trailer.

To be perfectly honest, I don't know any retail nursery in LA that has good stock. When you get outside the city to Camarillo, Piru, Fallbrook, Vista, etc you are really talking about wholesale nurseries that sell to retail customers. And then there are the wholesale only places. If you can make friends or make a deal with a landscape contractor or architect they might order stuff for you. But most of the best places specialize even if they have a lot of stock so you may need more than one nursery. The retail nurseries just can't touch the wholesale nurseries in terms of quality due to turnover. Even then, if you are looking for specimen plants you have to either drive around (and lets be honest there's a lot of area to cover) or call every nursery listed in Plantsearch and have them send pics.

That said, Village Nursery has a retail branch in Long Beach. Village is a huge wholesale nursery with grow yards all over California. They have very nice quality stock of all the standards. Their availability list is some 300 pages. The retail store can get anything in the system delivered to their yard. But the retail yard can be a pain. Just make sure to call before going to will call.

To answer your question, the best nursery in SoCal is San Marcos Growers.

Hello,

I'm local to you and I have a brisbane box tree for sale. I originally bought it to plant in front of my house, then found out that it might grow too big for the space I want to plant it at.Please email me if you are interested.

Thanks for the replies. I'll look into village nursery. House, I've sent you an email.

Riverside has many growers/ wholesale nurseries that sell direct. If you look at the farm and garden section of the Inland empire Craigslist you will find lots of listings. I'd make phone calls before making the drive anywhere but it isn't as far as Temecula!

Boething Tree Farms in Agoura has fabulous plants, VERY knowledgeable staff, and a huge selection!

My approach has been to shop around. Green Arrow, Green Thumb and Sperling Nursery are great for most things here in the Valley, but especially for edible ornamentals (DWN fruit trees), and veg starts. Armstrong Nursery is pricey but good for a lot of things like Monrovia products. OSH will have Four Winds Growers citrus trees, and is the best of the big box stores (Lowe's is second).

Baron Brothers in Camaillo - very good stock and easy to work with. Call
and tell them what you're looking for. They also deliver and I think it's fairly nominal cost (need to ask about that).