Out here in Riverside, CA, I had a *terrible* time finding asparagus. For
some reason, every garden catalogue I looked at didn't ship asparagus to
California, and none of the local nurseries carried it!! (Strange, because
I believe U.C. Riverside was responsible for "creating" one strain of
asparagus, and it (the campus) is only about 1/2 hour away!!)

I finally bought some at a nursery up north and "smuggled" it back. (No
agricultural checkpoints between northern and sourthern Cal! g) It did
really well its first year, then the dogs ate it all.