I used to have a Desert Dawn semi-dwarf that produced excellent fruit for years. My kids loved them the neighbors begged for them. I've moved since. I've planted several different varieties here, but haven't let any of them fruit yet. They seem fairly easy to grow here in greater Phoenix. Hope that helps.

Nectarines grow here as easily as regular peaches (nectarines are nothing more than mutant peaches) -- the yellow fleshed ones do better than the white fleshed varieties.

Nectarines in Arizona, are frequently tiny and often scarred and deformed due to the prevalence of the Western Flower Thrip here. Peach fuzz deters the thrips from damaging the thrips in its early developmental stages, which explains why peaches tend to do better. The only way to avoid this is to spray your nectarines a few times after petal fall.

I've had good success with Arctic Star and Desert Dawn. Snow Queen, my favorite nectarine, is not a heavy bearer here.

This is the first year my nectarine trees produced (3rd leaf) in significant quantity. Half dozen cultivars. Every single one of them literally disappeared at night just a couple of days before I was to pick them (separate occasions). Interesting because the peaches did not suffer that fate. I'll have to set up a IR camera for next year; though I'll be protecting them better then. I am wondering if ground squirrels have a taste?

Some thrip evidence...interestingly one cultivar more than the others.

I placed mine to get some summer shade protection and be early to late May cultivars.

The thing I like about the true genetic miniatures--which I have none due to space issues--besides their cool appearance is they completely shade their fruit. That may bode well for the later (June) fruiting cultivars around here.

If you grow peaches or nectarine, be sure to use bird netting for about a month before they ripen, or the birds will likely get all of them.