I've purchased from the same vendor before and I think the prices are fair, but you do have to be careful with the new air layers and at this time of year--unless you have a greenhouse or some good set-up inside--recovery is going to be slow.

I lost my first one and am currently on my second. It took 1 year for the second to begin to grow and even now it looks pretty sad. Of course, my climate is not ideal, but they do seem difficult to grow compared to almost anything I have tried.

Steve did yours get any bigger then when you first purchase it after a year? She sent me a picture and they seem on the smaller side 1'-2' and about pencil size for the branch thickness. I just plan to keep inside until late spring, is that ideal or should I set it under some grow lights? The lady is in zone 9b also but on an island in Florida and she said that most winter she doesn't protect her lychee and they do fine. She also said one tree died because she gave too much protection. On another forum a guy name Jeff Eral(sp)? have a lychee and longan tree in Modesto and some other guy in Visalia also have a lychee that do ok with min to none winter protection. Hope mine will be ok too once it matures.

Your description of the size is about right. My air layers had a significant curve to the "trunk", so I chose to do some training by gradually restraining the stem to a rigid support. The survivor is sort of straight now. But it has not grown much. It eventually lost all of its leaves during the tempering process and has had one, maybe one-and-one-half weak flushes. The leaf tips and edges are all brown and, frankly, the plant looks like something you want to hide somewhere until it dies.

My understanding is that wind is the chief enemy of the tender leaves but my plant is in a high tunnel structure, so it is sheltered from most wind. There is a fellow about 1/2 mile from me who has an enormous tree out in the open and it blooms tremendously and fruits---but the fruits never ripen properly because it's just not warm enough here generally (hence my plant in the high tunnel). His tree withstands our Winter and early Spring frosts and some pretty low temps (like the 33F of last week...), so like Jeff Earl's tree in Modesto, it's pretty hardy.

BUT, those are mature specimens. Little guys like these air layers need protection, at least as much as you would give a small citrus, probably more.