No Olive Trees! You will be soooo sorry if you plant an olive. My California Pepper's crown extends across my 60 foot lot into the neighbor's. Too big for a patio, and messy. Messiness is also my complaint about albizia or jacaranda. My first choice would be a Mayten tree, but they weep like a willow or a pepper, so you would have to get a mature specimen. I was at a convalescent home recently that used Carrotwoods for shade on their patios. I have never cared much for the tree, but these were multi-trunked and beautifully pruned. The shade was nice, but not too dense. I have changed my mind about carrotwoods. Sunset Western Garden Book has a good section on patio trees; you may want to take a look at that. Good luck in your search. Renee

"I was wondering what are the easiest, most fruit bearing trees to plant in Southern California. (I just put in a dwarf avocado and I also have two figs, a pomegranate, lemon, lime, and orange. Do you think its wise to try apples or peaches? The citrus trees seem to have a lot of different maladies, while the figs seem to be thriving on their own.)" "Sunset Zone 23 has always been Southern California's best zone for avocados"-Sunset. Natural, ideal fit for Suptropical So Cal - Avocados, Figs, Pomegranates, Persimmons Jujube Loquat Citrus (great evergreens, but recent disease issues) Low chill Apricot/Aprium, Low Chill Plum/Pluot, Low Chill Nectarine/hybrids Mangos, Bananas, Guavas & other tropicals (esp. if you have a hot, south-facing wall.) Fussier Trees - Peaches (climate), Cherimoya (hand pollination), low-chill cherry (Royal pair can take 7 years to sync up & produce fruit), apple of any chill rating (grow just fine, but one blight can wipe them out), pear (grow just fine, but one blight can wipe them out) Consider first: Sunset zone information - quite helful How "low chill" do you need? (Compare to Sunset maps) If you want fruit, you have to select varieties with chill requirements less than the number of chill hours you get in the majority of years. (If your chill range is 150-500, a tree rated 400 might give fruit prolifically one in every seven years.) I would set the Dave Wilson Nursery tool under your median chill hour to look for varieties. Not trees, but good perennial fruit: Kiwi, Grapes, Passionfruit, Low chill southern highbush blueberries, Low chill hybrid caneberries (boysen, olallie, rasp, black etc), Gogi, etc. --------------- One more link: Here is the VERY helpful Dave Wilson Chill Zone selection tool. It's a very long link, but I've adjusted the settings to get you started. Make sure you adjust these settings for just under your average chill hours per year (set here for 300) and your USDA zone (set here for 10). If you have FROST (most don't), then maybeadjust the harvest dates too.): http://www.davewilson.com/product-information/quick-screen/fruit-varieties-zone-chill-testing?field_product_fruit_group_value%5B%5D=apple&field_product_fruit_group_value%5B%5D=apricot&field_product_fruit_group_value%5B%5D=cherry&field_product_fruit_group_value%5B%5D=fig&field_product_fruit_group_value%5B%5D=jujube&field_product_fruit_group_value%5B%5D=nectarine&field_product_fruit_group_value%5B%5D=peach&field_product_fruit_group_value%5B%5D=pear&field_product_fruit_group_value%5B%5D=persimmon&field_product_fruit_group_value%5B%5D=plum&field_product_fruit_group_value%5B%5D=interspecifics&field_product_fruit_group_value%5B%5D=domestica&field_product_zone_lowest_value_op=%3C%3D&field_product_zone_lowest_value%5Bvalue%5D=10&field_product_zone_lowest_value%5Bmin%5D=&field_product_zone_lowest_value%5Bmax%5D=&field_product_zone_highest_value_op=%3E%3D&field_product_zone_highest_value%5Bvalue%5D=10&field_product_zone_highest_value%5Bmin%5D=&field_product_zone_highest_value%5Bmax%5D=&field_product_chill_hours_value_op=%3C%3D&field_product_chill_hours_value%5Bvalue%5D=300&field_product_chill_hours_value%5Bmin%5D=&field_product_chill_hours_value%5Bmax%5D=&field_harvest_date_value%5Bmin%5D%5Byear%5D=2012&field_harvest_date_value%5Bmin%5D%5Bmonth%5D=1&field_harvest_date_value%5Bmin%5D%5Bday%5D=1&field_harvest_date_value%5Bmax%5D%5Byear%5D=2012&field_harvest_date_value%5Bmax%5D%5Bmonth%5D=12&field_harvest_date_value%5Bmax%5D%5Bday%5D=31

Thanks so much parker25mv! Looks like we're both on the same page. I'm not planning on planting them in the ground, and I agree that they're too dominant in LA right now. When I was trying to find a suitable screen plant I read through all of the ficus discussion on here and decided against them. Then these fell into my lap, which opens up budget for native CA plants elsewhere so I'm trying to make lemonade. I'll leave them in the half-barrels, but I'm also open to any suggestions to make them healthier. Root pruning has been suggested above, which I'm looking into now. Thanks!

Yea I agree that the space would be a deciding factor on which varieties would work best. Lamb Hass for an A is a nice suggestion as it is more upright than traditional Hass. If she has plenty of room, the large spreading Fuerte is a nice option for a B. If she is more limited on space I think the more upright Sir Prize for a B would be the one to look at. I am not really sure about bloom overlap for Fuerte/Sir Prize with Hass, I think the former are more winter and the later more spring. The fruiting seasons would work well though as you could potentially have fruit year round. Kona Sharwil for the B would have the best correlation for blooming with Hass I think, plus it is a small tree. Both have long seasons at roughly the same schedule, but it will be much more difficult to find at nurseries than the others mentioned.