Northern Spy is a cold loving apple we all wish we could grow in the south.
Just a thought. You probably already considered it.

I'm wondering how you can be Z5 and no hard freeze till January? When do your apples lose their leaves? Exactly where are you in OR?

Pink Lady is a very late apple. Mine don't ripen until Nov/Dec. Can you leave them that long?

If you can grow Pink Lady, maybe Goldrush would be another good choice, late but very good.

Fruitnut, I'm in Central Oregon.

We've already had a freeze, but barely. 31 degrees. Mostly my plants ignored it. I lost one squash plant.

We'll get light freezes in October-November, but it won't get to the low 20's and teens until January (usually). Minus 20's are most likely to be Jan, Feb, occasionally March. Last freeze this past spring was June 15, but only 26 degrees, hardly counts; trees ignored it.

Coldest I remember was minus 50, but it only lasted for a week. Made it hard to water the livestock.

The silver birch have changed color and are losing leaves. Peaches have a few yellow leaves. Apples are acting like it is mid-summer. Trees should all be dormant before the first of December.

I don't know that I can grow pink lady. I'm reading that it is a warmer climate apple. I was hoping that someone had tried it in a colder climate and would tell how it did.

I find that zone ratings on fruit don't mean much.

What means something is days from flowering to setting mature fruit. So the question is at what time do your apples tend to flower and how much time the apples will have to mature before it's too cold. We can barely ripen Pink Lady here and we tend to get our last hard freeze(below about 30) in about mid-April. Of course we also don't tend to get as many clear warm days during the growing season as you.

You may not be able to mature Pink Lady there for this reason- same thing Goldrush. Of course the weather is trending warmer and growing seasons longer but maybe not quickly enough for you to grow Pink Lady. Any commercial growers around you for advice?

I ate my first Swaar off the tree yesterday, and if you like dense fleshed apples as I do you'll probably like this one. It is pretty sweet and juicy. Supposed to be better out of storage but I'm not sure how because it's not one of these acidic apples that would mellow.

The apples I use most of are long keepers because I eat most of them raw and don't make much cider or sauce.

How will you use your apples?

There are no growers around me. Extension Service advices that I can get apples once every 5 years and maybe pie cherries ever third year. So nobody has grown fruit in this area.

Now I have neighbors putting in fruit trees because I have been successful. They come by to ask what I'm doing, and I'm simply guessing and repeating what has worked for me (whether it makes a difference or not; I have no way of knowing).

I use apples for fresh eating and some drying and cooking. I like a long season. I like apples that can be stored through the winter, so we have fresh fruit. I also like variety in the taste and texture, so each apple is distinct. Sweet is good, tart is good, hard is good, crunchy is good, tender is good as long as it isn't mushy.

I've got some cooking apples ordered, so that is covered.

My son seems to think we are going to sell fruit at the farmer's market, so I've got a couple that are marketable. However, everything I plant is something that either he likes to eat, or I like to eat.

I trust the recommendations from this forum a lot more than I trust the websites that are trying to sell me plants. If a couple of different people have good luck with a plant in cold areas and like the fruit, then I think it is worth trying.

Your zone is not that cold but I guess your frosts are completely unpredictable. I wonder if you shouldn't focus on later flowering varieties. Jonagold is a good reliable late flowering apple of multiple uses. Spygold might be interesting and is harder than Jonagold so probably keeps better. Not sure if it shares Jonagold's late flowering habit. Somebody who reads this might come up with a good list for you of relative flowering times of a wide range of varieties.