I can't comment on which is best because I haven't tried them all, but I've heard very good things about pixie and kishu. Also if you live in CA you should be able to find quite a selection of citrus in your local nurseries. And since you live in CA you won't be able to order citrus trees in from out of state. Depending on where you move make sure you check your local laws because there are quarantines in place between certain areas in CA in an effort to curb citrus greening disease, so you may not be able to take it with you depending on where you are moving to/from.

Kris

Oh gosh, this is the third request in a month on this specific topic. Winstella, I have answered in depth the last two times. Do try to search for these two identical threads in our forum. I will give you a very short answer since you have kids - Seedless Kishu. Check to see if Four Winds Growers can ship to your area of California. Otherwise, there are an abundance of really great garden centers and nurseries in the Los Angeles area.

Patty S.

Thank you, Patty. Sounds like a great choice... four winds is sold out though! =(

SG Nursery near me is way over priced... anyone know of a local nursery carrying Seedless Kishu?

Winstella, have you tried lowes or Home Depot? That is where I buy a lot of my citrus, we are lucky in California to be able to go there and get quality trees at a decent price. They have good varieties there too. Tango and gold nugget mandarins are good choices for kids.
Evan

Nguy - wow that is awesome. I was just at Costco today and my local Costco only had 2 trees labeled Mandarin's and they were actually hybrid tangelos =/ will keep looking!

Evan - no, by the time I saw Patty's post, all the stores had closed. I will call around tomorrow, although I haven't had much luck with the two citrus plants I purchased from home depot in the past. They were infested w bugs.

Ok. Woke up at 6 today and waited two grueling hours for the nurseries to start opening. Most of them didn't have seedless kishus in stock but Bellefontaine Nursery in Pasadena have all 3 of the ones I was looking for! Kishu, satsuma, and golden nugget. Yay! $29, $29, & $32 respectively. :)

Yay. Feeling really lucky- Home Depot and Lowes were completely devoid of mandarin trees, let alone a kishu. None of the other nurseries in my area had kishus either, although a few carried golden nuggets and/or owari satsuma.

Just brought home a kishu mini & a golden nugget :) both are already flowering/fruiting.

I picked a 2ft tall golden nugget vs a 4ft tall one with a thicker trunk because it had a lot of leaf damage (looks like caterpillars) and didn't look as healthy to my untrained eye. Is that a good decision on my part? They were the same price, both in 5 gallon pots.

Here's the golden nugget

It seems the citrus carried by Home Depot, Lowes, and Costco is very erratic. I'm halfway between where you were looking in Pasadena and where Nguy found a Kishu in Costco in San Bernardino.

I've never seen a Kishu in any of those three. Armstrong usually has them, including the Pasadena store. They will also order and I would have them order a 15 gallon for planting in a pot and probably choose a standard instead of dwarf. My two small Kishus planted in pots at the same size as yours just aren't enough. Half a dozen would be better. One bigger tree is easier and should still be able to move when you do. Everyone in my family always asks if I brought any Kishus with me.

I've found some unusual trees at various Home Depots and Costcos. In looking at Costco 20-30 times I've picked up a MeloGold and an Ortanique Tangor. Each time it was the one interesting tree mixed in with lots of normal ones. It's kind of like prospecting for gold in that its way more trouble than its worth unless you think of it as fun.

Winstella
Congrats on your new babies.
I had the same concern when picking a tree. Saw some really healthy, heavily fruiting trees with thinner trunks and took the slightly less healthy (some damaged new leaves and a bit less fruit) thicker trunk one. Figured it would come around and that it may be older or just more stable. Anyone have any ideas about this?

Is anybody had fruits from gold nugget . How it's taste compare to honey mandarin?

I bought Gold Nugget after reading the reviews on it. Its pretty good. Got fruit on the Pixie and it is by far everyone's favorite here (wife and 3 boys). Kids love the Dancy mandarins because its so prolific for us but very seedy. I've enjoyed Tango at the farmers market but did not taste great on my tree. Keep in mind I've had these trees about 1-2 years after purchasing at the local big box stores. We are trying the Kishu as those were almost as good as Pixie at the farmers market.