88-2 is propagated by Monterey Bay Nursery. I would contact them for a possible local source. I would think it will be hard to find.

My two 88-2 just set their first fruit this spring. The only nursery that had them was 120 miles from me.

Thanks, Greg! I am happy to drive to buy citrus. Now that I gave up golf, I have plenty of free time and gas money. My daughters also enjoy the road trips. Come to think of it, that nursery is not too far from San Juan Oaks golf club....

Still hoping to find a Cocktail - wonder if they have one?

I don't think they sell to the public, they're only wholesale.

Many local nurseries buy from them. I'm sure there's a nursery near you that could order from them. I know SummerWinds Nursery in the south bay buys from them, and Yamagami's in Cupertino.

But like Greg says, if you call Monterey Bay Nursery, I'm sure they can tell you which nurseries near your area buys from them, and you can probably order the trees through that local nursery.

Here is a link that might be useful: Monterey Bay Nursery

They sell to the public, Barb. And, Luan may also have Cocktail.

Patty S.

Thanks, Patty - I've dropped them an email.

Oh wow, I did not know that, especially as their web site says wholesale only. Thanks, good info!

Well they don't have the 88-2 and they directed me to a retailer (which is OK) for some other mandarins.

Still on the hunt for the 88-2! Might be a budwood/graft operation...

I bought one of my Cocktail's from Home Depot.

In SoCal, they are propagated by La Verne and Durling and likely others.

I think a lot of smaller wholesale nurseries or growers will sell to a knowledgeable individual. By saying "I want to buy an 88-2", you are pretty much differentiating yourself from someone that says "I'm thinking about buying a citrus tree".

I know, I didn't either, Barb, until I chatted with them. They are VERY nice folks, and grow all kinds of gorgeous stuff, so beware - leave your credit card home :-) Serge, check around your area - you have a lot of good nurseries in the valley and in Los Angeles that might have this. I would direct you to San Diego county options, but we cannot take citrus out of our county, now :-( I think I bought my 88-2 at Andersen Nursery in Poway.

Patty S.

I've been doing a lot of calling and emailing and have struck out. I'll start the barrage again next week.

Serge,

Your best bet would be to buy a mandarin tree locally and topwork it to USDA 88-2. I live just south of San Jose and that is what I have done. My USDA 88-2 tree is now in the ground. Now I'm taking this approach to make myself a Boukhobza blood orange tree and a Wekiwa tangelo tree. I will be happy to teach you. This approach makes it possible to get the rarer varieties relatively quickly and without the risky movement of citrus plants.

Whatever you do, you don't want to drive down to Southern California and bring a tree home to Northern California; it could have Asian Citrus Psyllid (ACP) adults or eggs -- they are so small that it would not be obvious even if you were looking for them. One might think that nursery trees would be free of the pests, but it was actually the nurseries in Florida that helped speed the spread of citrus greening throughout the state. The authorities in California have learned from the lost war in Florida, but California is in a vulnerable time period now. If ACP were to make it to Northern California it could enable a breakout of Citrus greening.

Best regards,
Dan

Here is a link that might be useful: fruitmentor

Hi Dan:

Super generous offer! I have the budwood for 88-2 as of yesterday and have a nippon orangequat ready for the guillotine. If you have time to show me how to top-work a graft, I'll head on down to San Jo. Definitely will NOT transport citrus in/out of iffy areas - thanks.

Serge

Hi Serge,

I will be near Alameda on Saturday morning. If you have time maybe I could drop by and help you. I'll send you an email to work out the details.

Best regards,
Dan

Picked up my 88-2 (Lee x Nova) today from Orchard nursery (not OSH) in Lafayette, CA. Neat place.

Taking a look at it....it seems like they did a whip-graft onto the (C-35) rootstock. Is this normal? I always wondered what kind of grafts commercials places do. Does this look like a whip graft?

...oh and while I was there I picked up an Australian Finger Lime. I swear it just jumped in my cart and I didn't realize until I was 1/2 way home.

I've never had any luck getting anyone to believe that excuse when I used it.

Currently using CAD software to try to figure out where to put 60 citrus, avocados, and one pomegranate.

It's not unusual to use a whip graft. Kind of depends on who's doing the grafting, and what technique they're most successful with. Looks like a nice solid graft to me, and congrats on the new trees.

Patty S.

Serge, tragic that you gave up GOLF! ??
Those two varieties have been available from Willits & Newcomb through Costco up here in the SF Bay Area [I grabbed both]. Unfortunately, Costco's citrus sales season is over so if you want some (more) you will need to wait until March of next year.
- George
BTW: if you email W&N, they can respond with their color code chart that lists varieties they carry...

@George -re:golf, my wife insisted that I go back to playing a couple of times a month. I think maybe she misses the time with me *out* of the house! So I played the re-built Poppy Hills in Monterey 2 weekends ago. It's so new and hard ZERO approach shots that hit the green will hold. The fairways run like cement. Lots of big numbers that day.

Thanks for the W&N info, I'll drop them a line. Dan is coming up from San Jo today and he's going to do some grafts with me. I have some 88-2 and Cocktail (I think?!?) budwood and some willing host trees so it's possible I can get something going before Costco restarts their citrus sales. Hit 'em straight!