Carica papaya 'Thai Dwarf' - Thai Dwarf Papaya

Ah....the difference between soucal 10b and the bay area's 10a. Papaya's just cant take that extra winters chill. Mangoes do..Papayas,nope.

I'm actually in San Diego's zone 11. The climate here is so mild temps very, very rarely drop below 41ºF. (generally the lows stay between 45 - 55ºF during January).

I grew mountain and Babaco papaya in Hayward successfully. I grew mangoes when I lived in Mission San Jose in Fremont. It's much warmer than Hayward.

Yeah,Mission SJ to Warm Springs to Milpitas are like the great "unknown" subtropical growing bay area. My sister lived there. Its really too bad most think of the SF-Oakland and Berkeley area's as our botanical sweet spot.
I'm inland in the southern part of Hayward. Zone pushing on a small lot.

I don't think Mission San Jose, Warm Springs, Milpitas, San Jose, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale are unknown good subtropical-growing areas of the Bay Area, anymore. When you go through these cities they have a wealth of subtropical plants/trees.

Hayward does have an excellent climate for subtropicals, also. I grew so many subtropicals there when I lived there. The soil there is so much better than here in San Diego.

Thank's Delonix.
Also,as you can see I'm new and have been going backwards over your photos. I still meet people who are surprised at what grows in the bay area. I actually met a guy who propagates as a volunteer with UC Berkeley,who didnt know Bizmarckia palms can grow here. Bay areans just are not tuned to exotics. I have seen choice exotics grow for -say- 10 years,and when we had that 2007 cold? Instead of removing the frosted tips- They cut the whole plant down! I bet they thought it was dying. Oh boy...

I used to meet people all the time that didn't believe I grew what I grew up there. I always told them if you don't try it you'll never know.

I've never seen a Bismarckia nobilis growing outside in the SF Bay Area. I've heard that several people in the Palm Society are growing them, though.

Here Bismarckia nobilis is pretty common and they grow pretty fast. The only problem is that they grow to gigantic proportions.

25 years ago a 1 gallon palm was $125.00, now you can buy a large 15 gallon tree at some nurseries for around $40.00. Times have changed.