I know there are people trying the low chilling cherries around Houston TX. Not sure how they are doing. But Houston gets a lot more chilling than you do.

Your summers simply aren't good for cherries. Way too hot and humid. Why not try stuff that is known to work in your area. There are many fruits that will work. Check out Just Fruits & Exotics from your area. They will guide you into the right things.

Here is a link that might be useful: Just Fruits & Exotics

I think if you can not get Desert Gold or Katy I would not try Minnie or Royal. As Fruitnut stated humidity is not good for Cherries. I would figure out what people grow in your area and work with that. There are peaches like Flordaprince which work in areas like Florida.

I am just trying to grow these two trees myself, so, I can't comment on how well they do for me. There is a man that is growing them successfully here and they were covered with cherries this year. We don't have the humidity but we have really hot summers and winter chill hours of 500 hours or less.
If you love cherries and they won't do well in your area, maybe you could try Cherry of the Rio Grande or some other tropical cherry.

katy did ok here, just no fruit. did ok with the humidity. gold kist may be a little lower chill. anyway if anyone finds some I assume minnie and royal as
dwarfs on an interstem I would really like to know.

My Minnie Royal and Royal Lee cherries grew like gangbusters this year. I had to be fairly brutal with summer pruning to get them down to pickable levels for me. They do very, very well here near the coast in S. California. We even have folks literally ON the coast that have had good crops. It is more humid there than me (I'm about 6 miles inland), and they have very low chill hours. We have had excellent results with these two trees, but if you're concerned, you can always have a chat with Dave Wilson Nursery to get their opinion on these two trees in you area of the country.

Patty S.

Here is a link that might be useful: DAve Wilson Nursery - Home Growers

To respond to the original post by greenpagoda:

You have to keep the soil around the tree consistently watered. Especially when the trees are young and do not have an established root system yet. Twice a week, three times a week during the hot summer. Young cherry trees will also do much better in a location with a little bit of partial shade. (I suppose you could grow one in a very huge container, but it would have to get quite big before it was ready for full sun planted out in the open) This is for stone fruit (and especially cherry in particular) in zone 9 / 10 in hot dry climates with little cloud cover. Of course, if the summer humidity is too high the stone fruit will succumb to fungal disease. So for hot climates it can be a precarious balance between the tree's leaves getting baked and dried out on the one hand, or the tree suffering root rot and disease on the other hand, if the tree is overwatered or the air is festering with sticky humidity.

Black cherry will grow better in Florida and is more disease and insect resistant (to some extent), though of course it does not have quite the same flavor (technically it's not really the same species). I find Black cherries have more of a murky insepid plum flavor and less cherry flavor, though they are good for processing and adding flavor to other dishes because of their subacid flavor.