I'm in your zone and see gingkos here. They are glorious in the fall. The Sunset garden book says they grow in zones 14-24.

I really don't know much except you want a male tree as the females drop smelly nuts.

Yes, the liquidambars are beautiful but the "balls" are bad if it's in a walking area.

We have a Gingko Biloba, and it is just beautiful! It is male and has tiny pods. Nothing like the pods of a liquidamber. We got ours for shade, so it's not the narrow variety. I love how it's leaves shimmer in the breeze.

We pulled out a Liquidamber because of the mess, and it was nearly impossible to kill. Suckers come up from the roots everywhere. Actually those roots went far from the trunk, and we were amazed where the suckers emerged.

We got our male Gingko from a tree nursery and they showed us all the trees. The males had a blue band around their boxes. Cute! I've heard the female fruit smells like vomit, so be sure you get a male!

There is a street lined with them in Claremont--plenty hot there in summer. A beautiful tree. How much space do you have? They can get quite large.

I have a large male gingko that came with the house - my best guess is that it is around the age of the house (93 years old). It turns a brilliant golden yellow in the fall. I'm in Fresno, so I would think that my location gets much hotter and stays hotter longer than the San Fernando Valley. Our street is also lined with liquidambar trees that were planted when the homes were built, and about half of those are dead or dying - the one in front of my house succumbed to some fungus that hollowed out the center. Of the two types of trees, I prefer the gingko. They only makes a mess once a year in the fall and seem to be longer-lived.

Suzi, the ginko fruits smell like cat feces (to me). I read somewhere that they are good for roasting and eating and are considered a delicacy in Asia, but I wouldn't be able to get over the smell.

@Josue Diaz, LOL! They eat the dreaded Durian Fruit in Asia too! No accounting for taste, I guess. Staying away from both of those!

Thanks for the feedback. I'm definitely space limited. It will be planted 15' from the corner of house. Therefore, I was looking at the narrower varieties like Princeton Sentry or Fairmont, which websites state get 12-20 feet wide.

I'm considering redoing my front yard in a Japanese style, so the Gingko will fit in well. I plan to underplant the tree with Blue Chip Juniper. The crown of the Gingko doesn't look very dense, which I prefer.

That looks nice. I hope it does well for you.

I am posting a photo of a gingko in my area from a few years ago. Yours will not look like this (thankfully!), but I thought you would appreciate seeing it.

That is a lovely ginkgo, socks! The few I have seen In my immediate neighborhood are narrower, thinner foliaged, and not nearly so grand looking. I would be taking the long way home in autumn just to drive by the tree in your photo.

I took a train from downtown Chicago to Oak Park, IL to tour the Frank Lloyd Museum. It was late in November, and about 2-3 blocks from the estate there was a strong rancid odor that permeated every where. I thought I had stepped in vomit. As I approached the property, I saw a group of people collecting fruit that had fallen off a grand female Ginko located on the property. Wonderful museum by-the-way, but the smell of the ripe Ginko fruit was beyond obnoxious. So glad the tree is dioecious and male cultivars are available in nurseries.