Forgot to include Manila in the considerations. I heard a lot of good things about Manila from fellow Californians, but I think it might be more bushy looking with low branches as the one Mangodog has. Probably cut the lower branches off will work?

FAIRCHILD

Pim sane mun is one of the prettiest tree in my opin. It's has a very nice rounded, symmetric appearance with dark green leaves. It's also a vigorous grower.

Jeff

Maha Chanook is a gorgeous tree. It's Thai for the King's mango.

gtw - nah, forget the Manila - it is NOT the best tasting, good but not great, and very straggly and hanging down a lot. Nope...Might as well go for something better tasting with stiff upright branching for your pretty tree. My Mahachinook seems to be a stiff upright nice looking tree so far. My Glenn also seems pretty upright with those new red leaves it puts out, I can only imagine a whole canopy of it - would be gorgeous.

mangoDOG

I think the Haden and the Glenn are elegant looking mango trees. My favorite pics on this forum is of the Cogshalls and the Pickerings. I love their symmetry!

JF

Valencia Pride will grow upward. Their oblong fruits have nice coloration and look exotic hanging from the tree during prime mango time. This is what I have seen in people's backyards. I do not own one.

I'd say either Valencia Pride or Maha Chinook. I do not have either tree, but I have heard great things about both.

MGB

Thanks for all the inputs. I think it is gonna between Glenn, Valencia pride and Maha channok. I already have a Glenn, will wait to buy the other two next spring from FL and see which one has the form I like the best.
Btw, what do you think of Kent compared to the three mentioned above?

I think Carrie is a very nice looking tree.

Kent is a REALLY large tree, so I've been told. I don't know how aesthetic the shape is nor how well they do in So.CA. Their flavor is outstanding. Ain't nobody who don't love Kent!

Baileys Marvel even in the bay area wants to be tall...no sideways growth-just vertical and fast if you pick off flowering. And-if I bought mine in the bay area-I would guess they are now easier to find in California. Mine tasted fine to me. The only other read on it was of it doing badly..but I can now see,that owner probably gave it minimal watering. A new post of large tree's in soucal and tasting great seem to be more typical of the tree. And its more cold tolerant then most types. Even in soucal -thats a plus.

Amazingly Stan, I've never seen a Bailey's Marvel for sale down here in SoCal!

Gary

I would guess Gary-that B.M.'s reputation for cool tolerance is why Regan's nursery in Fremont,the largest non box store and TRUE nursery in my area, carried it. Just it and Manila's. At the time both BM's for sale were clearly larger then the same price Manila's in the same sized containers. I took a chance-didn't know a thing about them.
Since then I have found one post-here? palmtalk? cloudforest? I can't remember..but,he said that there were large tree's full of fruit in the San Diego area. The "large tree" part stuck with me. I would be shocked if anybody else in California-dedicated to Mango growing- wouldn't also notice that race to vertical height they put on. I got 3' in two years-and that's after I tipped pruned it hoping for more bushiness..it just reverted back to shoots, shooting up-lol. This year it slowed-but that's what container and wanting fruit will do.

Valencia Pride turns into a HUGE tree. Bailey's Marvel is rather vigorous (at least in my experience w/one tree). In my humble opinion Kent is MUCH better than the Glenn in terms of taste. The Kent tree in my family's yard is not too big; it is a nice looking tree, and a moderate grower (not growing as fast as the Bailey's Marvel). From what I've read the Fairchild is a really beautiful tree, though I've never seen a large one in person.

Have you considered putting two different trees in the same hole? You can grow them together and they will cross pollinate each other creating great fruit production & enhancing flavor the trees will naturally grow symmetrically. I have a Glenn & a seedling I created as an experiment. They share their space great together and look beautiful.

My five mangoes are still in the pots, so I don't know how they'll look when fully grown. So far while in the pot, I find that Cogshell, Pickering and Miracle Mango all develop straight trunks. Carrie looks lobsided on the branching and doesn't have a straight trunk and Nam Doc Mai is a slow grower.

For those of you who have a bigger tree in the ground, would it be possible for you to post a picture. It would be nice to see how these various trees grow up to look like.