They sell those trees because people ask for them.

That's why I always suggest that folks, whenever they purchase plants, to ask "Will this do well in my garden?"

Just how well your trees will do will depend upon where you live -- coastal or more inland, cooler canyon, and so on.

The Asian Pears should be okay. Possibly the Pluots.

Apricots are always iffy in SoCal gardens -- either they lack sufficient chill or an unusual freeze nails the flower buds. I grew a low-chill apricot that did well the first several years, then pooped out in fruit production -- I think the problem was that the tree was so vigorous -- weedy? -- that it had few reserves to set and develop fruit.

Two good sources of information for your area are the San Diego Master Gardeners, also the California Rare Fruit Growers (CRFG).

Although CRFG has "rare" in it's name, those folks will know about more common stuff. And they also have a group that physically meets in your county.

Jean,
who previously gardened in Long Beach, CA, for 30-some years.

Jean- I live on a mesa 9 miles inland from the Pacific. Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try the CFRG and the Master Gardeners.

Jean:

Don't give up on the Arctic Star Nectarine yet; you may still get something from it.

Unlike stonefruit most apples will do fine in your area (yes, I know that goes aganist everything you've heard). I wish I could say the same for peaches and apricots.

For apples, a good list to start with would be Dorsett Golden, Williams Pride, Hawaii, Rome Beauty, Wealthy, Enterprise, Cherry Cox, Fuji, Arkansas Black, and Pink Lady.

Applenut

Hi andrea_san_diego, Some of those trees have low enough chill requirements for your zone and should be producing fruit.

I am new to growing fruit trees but I do have a short story to tell that may help and a couple of links you may find helpful also.

My short story. I have purchased 14 fruit trees over the last two years all of which were of fruiting size and age. The first year I had no fruit at all. Last year there was no fruit either and come September I gave my fruit trees some pelletized fruit tree fertilizer for the very first time and suddenly there were blooms and fruit growing which did not mature because I fertilized them too late and none of them had time to fully ripen. I my zone it is recommended that I mulch and fertilize my trees one the 1st of March and the 1st of July which I plan on doing this year and I fully expect to have lots of fruit.

Here are a couple of links you may find helpful. I have another similar link that adds a few more tried and true low chill trees but I could not find it. If/when I do find it will post it in this thread.

http://cals.arizona.edu/pubs/garden/az1269

http://www.starnursery.com/print.php?page=note.php%3Fid%3D28

Thisisme- Thanks for the links. They have a lot of good information that I will save. I especially liked the info about when to spray & fertilize because I had no idea when to do those tasks. I've decided to give the trees one more year to see if the spraying and fertilizing will make a difference. I really hate to give up on them now. Thanks for everyones help.