I have a tropic snow that has excellent taste but with a chill of only 250. In our crazy year it is 75% bloomed with some green leaves. I really like the Arctic Star nectarine. It is just starting to bloom (actually looks like first bloom will happen tomorrow). Both have high vigor and seem disease resistant so far, but this is only the second year of growth.

I have a tropic beauty that has totally bloomed out and has almost all its leaves. I have a few more such as Gulf Crimson and Florida crest. Gulf Crimson has not bloomed, Florida Crest has some blooms. Florida Crest has fair quality, I am in North Beaumont, a little warmer than you are I would think.

Thanks for the information Gary. A problem I have that may not be as big a concern for you is late frosts. So the varieties I am looking for have low chill and midseason to late blooming. I looked up the Tropic Snow and it is an early bloomer. All of your varieties that are blooming now would definitely suffer from a late freeze where I am. The last week of March is when most people plant gardens around here. I have had a couple of varieties of nectarines in the past and they produce just fine but the bugs are so bad on them that I never have a harvest. They do not seem to bother the peaches.

This year things seem to be blooming about 2 to 4 weeks earlier than normal. I think the blooms and/or peaches will survive a frost or even a slight freeze. As long as things stay above 30 I think I will be ok.

The June prince that I have is still dormant along with the La Feliciana. I haven't tasted the June prince but the La Feliciana has only average taste. I also have a White Delight 2 peach that is still dormant. I did not like the flavor last year, very mild. I gave the fruit away. It was it's first year to fruit so I will give it another year. I think the flavor of the tropic snow might warrant a try to see if will survive the late freezes.

I am basing the earlier blooming on my Southern Highbush blueberries. They usually bloom in the middle of February but this year some were in full bloom the middle of January. They seem to be able to handle colder temperatures without loosing their fruit. I have had La Feliciana the longest, about 5 years. It did not get enough chill hours last year and I suspect it may not do well this year either. It was a good producer the 3 years before.

I live in a very low chill area. I planted tropic snow, eva's pride, mid-pride, and was strongly considering stark saturn. Mind you, they are still youngish, so I havent let them fruit, but they are all healthy. I based all of the purchases off of good reviews on the internet

Are you interested in nectarines as well? Would something like Panamint nectarine be a good fit for you? What about August pride peach?

Anonymous, thanks for your comment. I would love to be able to grow nectarines but after trying for about 5 years without success I have given up. I have success with peaches and plums however. I got in several new varieties of plum this winter:. Elephant Heart, Mariposa, Howard Miracle, and Golden Nectar. Next year I am considering getting a Kelsey. I do not know anyone who has Kelsey but I sure would like to know how they taste. The Ausust Pride peach, according to Dave Wilson website, blooms early. That is a problem for me since my area is very prone to late freezes. The varieties of peach I am in the process of getting (Double Jewell, Babcock, Strawberry Free, and June Pride) have 500 hrs or less and do not bloom early. I am hoping someone who is producing those can tell me about the size, taste, and whether they produce dependably.

Low chill peaches are usually early blooming. In fact I don't think you'll find a really low chill peach that blooms late. Once the chilling requirement is met the warm days we have in Dec, Jan, and later will cause early blooming. High chilling requirement is really the only way in peaches to delay bloom. So you might want to select varieties with a range of chilling requirements and accept that some yrs some won't produce as well as you'd like.

Fruitnut: I have always been of the same opinion and that is why all my peach trees are between 600 and 750 chill hours. But having 3 years in a row of lower than normal chill I decided to check the DW website to see if perhaps there are some varieties with 500 or less hrs that do not bloom early. The ones I found are Babcock, Double Jewell, June Pride, JH Hale, and Strawberry Free. Of course just because that is what it says does not mean it is accurate. But I figured it may be worth the try so I am ordering some. I can always graft over them if it does not work out.