Bridget, I don't know where are you located? but the best bet is to go to any botanical place around your area and see if you like the landscape, size, colors, etc. You also have to decide what you want your landscape to do for you, beauty, easy care, food? then you can narrow down your choices. When there is an abundance of fruit is fine as long as the trees are easy to care for and easy to save the harvest or give them away. Unfortunately, citrus are hard and expensive to take care for these days and loquats are just not prime fruit, one is plenty! We have a service that do all the things like lawn, pest control, etc. They also provide service for taking care of fruit trees but for that, they are very expensive! but at least they are experts and let us know if there are problems and what we ourselves can do about that. The orange groves around my house are heavily using every spray available, they are commercial and having harvests is very important to them. Taking any mature tree out is also a hard job to do, we just had to take out a nectarine in the front yard that just died this season, it is next to my neighbors shrubs that were loaded with some kind of insects and disease last season, we asked our service to spray for that, the problem went away and I thought that was the reason for the tree to die. When we took it out this week, we found out that it died because it was not draining. Same thing was going to happen to the fig that I told you about it that was in the pot, at least I saved that one. You have a long road ahead, either keeping the trees and taking care of them or replace them, make a plan....and keep us posted on what you decide to do. As a consolation, we are always changing something too.:) Silvia

tampaart --- Your tree is still looking very nice. billbrandi --- In your title you asked for ideas so I am going to say what I would do if it was my tree. BTW, I did plant a young sapodilla tree this spring and it is growing nicely. I am going to assume that the tree is in full sun. In your pic it looks like you have some kind of rock at the base of the tree. I would remove all of that and some of the dirt. I would top dress with some quality compost (thick layer). Then I would put a 3 (THREE!)inch layer of mulch. Wood chips would be an excellent choice. Be sure not to build up any of these materials on the trunk of the tree. Water regularly. Since you have been giving it a lot of fertilizer I would not add more. The tree will get some from the compost. Best of luck. Christine

Zands - and that be would be cool if i had the Carabao, Phillipine SUPER mango, but mine look smaller don't you think? Not as elongated as in your picture... Ashley - maybe I'll call it Wilddog - my new mango hybrid! Anyone have contact info for the Federal Patent office ! (lol). But do let me know, with comments and pictures, how your Manila looks as it fruits - I'm super curious to see your results - maybe this summer???? Mango K - Manila is the ONLY mango Lowes/HD offers at their stores here in So Cal, so there's no chance for a mislabeling unless it happened at LaVerne's before it was shipped, cuz you can special order other varietals from them (but through Lowes), which I did (I think a Glenn and something else) but they were just crappy sticks so I got my money back.....but yeah anything's possible - I suppose I could look at the other varieties LaVerne offers (like 7-8 others) and go to the PIN viewer and see maybe if one of those mangos comes up looking close to mine.....hmmmm..... Oh...and thanks Harry for the steady faith in the Edwards Mango, which I just spent $160 on to get a big tree and plant. As you say the consensus is it is a fabulous tasting mango......can't wait for one this year....oh, just can't wait...... MangoDogDroolingInTheDesert

Went by Jeff's place today and bought a grafted pace mamey and a grafted Nam Doc Mai #4. The trees look extremely healthy. I got to taste a sample of Lemon Zest and NDM #4. The NDM #4 was great! Fiberless, sweet and rich with honey-like flavor. The Lemon Zest left me speechless. It tasted like a sweet rich pina colada with a hint of orange. In fact, I'm going back next weekend to buy a lemon zest. Just realized my front yard needed a nice tree that provides lots of shade. So I thought, Lemon Zest... I don't have to worry much about people stealing my mangoes since it's a very quiet and safe neighborhood. My neighbor across the street always leave their windows open and I'm going to buy a home surveillance system. Actually, I might just move the valencia pride to the front yard and plant the lemon zest in the back.