Air quality in Claremont definitely sucks in the summer, as smog collects against the mountains and has no where to go unless strong offshore winds blow it back out to sea. The landscape possibilities in the San Marino/Pasadena area are also good, but it is not a coastal climate, and it gets much hotter/smoggier in summer, and has potential for freezing in winter, although parts of this area have exceptional microclimates that don't get nearly any frost. The Huntington Botanic Garden and Los Angeles County Arboretum are both in this area, and well worth checking out to see the diversity of what can be grown there. The Norton Simon Museum gardens in Pasadena are also worth checking out. I think you have a huge learning curve ahead of you in getting familiar with the plant palette of southern California, although you will also notice that given what can be grown there, most landscapes are actually pretty pedestrian as to planting choices and design, not nearly as interesting in general as what is being done here in the San Francisco Bay Area. There is a lot more uniformity and reliance on the same basic 20 plants in Los Angeles. Best wholesale nurseries in southern California for more variety tend to be in San Diego's north county area, or in the Santa Barbara/Carpenteria area, in my opinion. If you are located within the southern California area, close proximity is not as critical, as most of the larger nurseries will ship throughout the area. If the intrinsic beauty of the region is the highest criteria for selecting where you will relocate, I would suggest that it is very hard to beat Santa Barbara/Montecito, but it certainly is not affordable by any consideration, and professional design competition is pretty tough, particularly for someone who may still have a lot to learn about the plants. It would also be hard to find something really nice for less than a million...

I suggest that you simply purchase a nice little bare root pear and plant it in the spring. I planted 30 fruit trees this year, with a variety of 15 gallon pots, branched bare roots and whips (young trees with no branches). The bare roots have passed up the potted trees and the whips are now just as big as the older bare roots. The largest trees out there are the bare root apricots (they grow fast) and the next largest is the Gold cherry whip, that got munched to nearly nothing by the deer, but has put on phenomenal growth this year. Unless you have an expert doing your planting for you, the younger trees take the move a lot easier and get up and running a lot faster. I would be afraid that if I spent a lot of money on a large potted tree. that it would be root bound and end up dying. If you buy a younger tree, you should be able to find one with your choice of rootstck. Rootstock is going to affect how fast the tree grows and how big it gets. I second the vote for Dave Wilson trees.

I have 15 gal pots (just not big enough for the extra tomatoes I seem so determined to grow and I'm outta space for new beds) so I'm looking for the 25 gal pots which are kinda unusual since most growers at that point use the wooden boxes-- Every few years I'll look for them and usually strike out. The 25 gals are large and round and have holes on the sides of the bottom... I have a half dozen but they're packed with Orienpet lilies in a custom soil mix that are just sprouting and I'm loathed to move at this point... they will not do as well in the 15 gal which heat up too much even shaded for the lilies but the 25 gal really helps with keeping the roots cooler and more insulated... I have called around to some growers and haven't been successful yet. I know someone posted on here about who had them a while back (2 years ago?) And I thought I'd written it down in my garden journal but alas can't find the note now. The name of the grower is on the tip of my memory but the yellow pages didn't help... any suggestions here are certainly appreciated! It WAS a tree grower too-- [Apparently one grower is selling plastic 24" square plastic containers which I'm completely unfamiliar with. Anyone know what those are like? For $15 each.]

I live in Long Beach. We do get coastal breezes. But because of our proximity to Palos Verdes Peninsula, the large "hill" blocks the northwesterly sea breezes, so many times Long Beach can reach into the 90s in the summer while south in Huntington Beach or north in Redondo Beach, the temps will be in the 70s. But for the most part, temps keep moderate year round. I'm luck to have a large yard and big enough for several large greenhouses. If do prefer the coast. San Diego county is beautiful. Take a drive down to Quail Botanical Gardens in Northern San Diego county. Vista is nice. Capistrano is nice too. The O.C. is nice, but you will find a lot of track homes. Large homes, yes, but not very big yards. Fullerton is nice. The old part of the city. But it does get warm in the summer. Not too bad. If you go north, try Ventura County. Ventura or Carpinteria. Forget Santa Barbara or Goleta unless you have big bucks. The housing market has slumped. But not to a point where you can buy a house along the coast for less than a million. (Though you will find some nice homes in the $800K) Hard hit areas where homes have been foreclosed will be the outlying suburbs (tract homes) in Corona, Riverside and much of Inland Empire where many new homes were defaulted on. I for one hate these types of neighborhoods. Cookie cutter homes (large) but no yard. And basically but up against near desert. I would avoid Porter Ranch and Santa Clarita. Right now the area is ablaze. Planned neighborhoods, fancy tract homes, and small yards. But again, fire hazard areas. Also we have a bad drought, so you will be limited in watering. And if you do choose to live in a dry area, well, you will have to change your plantings to reflect more native plants, grasses, and cacti. San Bernardino County is up in the foothills. The base of the mountain. Fallbrook is nice, but gets hot in the summer and cold in the winter. Good for fruit that need winter chill. Again, if you want to grow more exotics, more tropicals, then you need to move to the coast. Mornings will have marine overcast. Which is nice. And will burn away to sunny, mild days. You will have more micro-climates too. Here in Long Beach, I grow mainly orchids. But also pineapple, plumeria and hawaiian tea bushes.