I've planted 4 of them; up here they are known as Oregon Myrtles. My 4 were tiny sticks with about 8 leaves when I planted them December 2005. Bought them nearby from a native nursery. The nursery lady said they eventually grow 100' tall by 100' wide but you don't see them that big because the wood is so valuable and beautiful that people cut them down. This is a lovely evergreen tree. The 4 I planted had a very slow start. Just 3 weeks ago neighbors on south side put up a 6' cedar fence and that's really helped everything planted near there, where these 4 myrtles are. They're growing now, deep green color and very healthy. Yes, compared to most other trees they are slow, but now they are speeding up a bit. It would take several years, at this rate, for it to become a patio shade tree. For my patio I constructed a raised bed, about 2' high, filled with super good dirt and covered with large stones with irish & scotch moss between the stones. Planted 3 mimosas and 1 purple robe locust there, plus vinca, yuccas, rhodies, and a rosemary going nuts. Since it's raised and everything here's baby from scratch (not tall enough to cast dense shade yet) I have to water the patio daily. But all these trees have thrived and gotten quite huge fast and give good dappled shade. Surrounded the perimeter with sequoias so in a few years won't have to water every day. There are folks here who don't like mimosa or locust but I had to have trees that could handle winter cold and water and yet loved summer sun and heat for this patio which is up against the house and so reflects scorching heat from the house walls and roof. These trees are working perfectly. Generally all the trees I've planted (over 300) appreciate some shade when they're babies. The umbellularia californicas certainly did and do. Even though they are slow, they're definitely worth planting along with faster trees so that decades down the road you have these gorgeous myrtles.

Kate, when you say "sweet" lemon, how sweet is sweet? It may be a sweet lime, which looks like a lemon, and is sub-acid sweet. Very insipid. Cherished in the Middle East, but not so popular here in the USA. My Meyer lemons are not sweet. They're acidic, just not as acidic as a Eureka or Lisbon. But biting into one will probably not give you a "sweet" reaction. Just maybe a little bit less acidic than a Eureka or Lisbon (the two more common lemons available to the retail market.) And, you might want to check out Montery Bay Nursery. Down in Monterey Bay area, but they are a wholesale nursery and provide really high quality citrus, and some neat, more usual citrus to many nurseries throughout the state of California. You can contact them to see what retail nurseries in your area buy from them. I can special order any of their varieties through Anderson Nursery in Carlsbad for me. You don't have your USDA/Sunset Zone in your "Posted By" sig line (see mine), so not sure how cold you get up there, but I think melikeeatplants made a great suggestion in a Meiwa kumquat (my favorite kumquat). You also might consider the Satsumas, especially the Frost Owari Satsuma mandarin, one of the most cold tolerant citrus going. And quite good. And blood oranges should turn very red for you, too, if you can protect them from frost, so either a Moro if you really want something colorful, or a Tarocco, which some folks like the taste of better (I like them both, and think Moro actually tastes very unique and good.) Patty S. Here is a link that might be useful: Monterey Bay Nursery

Yes, very interested as well. All of mine have died (2 or 3rd year in ground) seems to be a soil issue(wetness, nutrients, nematodes). I even re-planted a second sample on a Colt(?) root-stock and on raised soil piles and they seem to be almost dead again. Nothing survives in here with exception of citrus, pineapple and muscadine grapes + tropical stuff in-ground. Before dying both trees actually did bloom with couple of fruit setting. So it looks like you will definitely have some as long as they stay alive. :) I am now trying to do the 25 gallon pots experiment, if that fails as well I will give up on cherries and move on to tropicals since it might be some regional pest/disease issue for me ( I live next to a big pine forest/preservation area so maybe some nastiness flying from there?). So-far I potted couple of plants and it looks good (knock on wood :D) What is weird however is I planted couple of apples (Dorsett and Anna I believe) in the same spot the Cherrys were and the seem to be doing great! I even got fruit off-of them the 2nd year. Hopefully you'll have good news to post!

Persea can be tricky to identify at first, because its leaves are not very distinctively shaped (alternate, simple, entire, and elliptical). But once you know what to look for, you'll be surprised at how often you run into it. First of all, when you crush the leaves in your fingers or scratch a twig, you'll be able to smell a pleasant, spicy aroma. As bghay mentioned, the leaves can be used in place of commercial bay leaves for cooking. Another easy way to confirm that it's a native Persea is to look for places where the edges of the leaves are distorted and curled over into these funny bulges, that may be silvery-white or brown. These are the galls that dghays mentioned, damage from the redbay psyllid (Trioza magnoliae). They don't cause serious harm to the tree. Some Persea trees will just be loaded with galls, and some will not have many, but usually there will be at least a few. When you see that, you can be pretty sure that you've got a redbay or related species. From there, it can be a little trickier to distinguish between the different species of Persea, but there's an easy way to tell between the two most common species, redbay (P. borbonia), and swamp bay (P. palustris). You can do the "tongue test." Place the underside of the leaf lightly against your tongue. If it feels distinctly fuzzy, you've got swamp bay. If it feels smooth, it's redbay. Unfortunately, both of these species (or subspecies, depending on which botanist you believe) are equally susceptible to laurel wilt. Or, you can post a picture here, and we can all compete for who gets to ID it first. ;-)