Hello windyfreezethaw! I havent tried any of the trees that you have mentioned. I looked up paw paw trees in one of my books and it seems that they need high humidity (60 -70%) and some shade. Persimmons are zoned for 5 and up and we can get some really good cold snaps in Nevada. My uncle has an american persimmon tree. He lives in central calif. near Fresno. Check with the extension office and see if they have more info on them. If the trees arent that expensive and you have a warm microclimate I say buy the trees and hope for global warming! Just kidding about the global warming. Im waiting for the snow to melt off my lawn! Valree3

Michael of michaelsapples.com tried permissions a few year back. The tree survived the winters but just started to emerge and leaf out in mid summer. They need longer hotter, summers with more humidity. Last spring I planted two hazel nuts. They blossomed this winter but are now dead. If I try them again I will put them in a sunny spot as opposed to the north side of the fence again. Some folks from the Reno permaculture group are also trying hazel as well as some of the things you mentioned. They are an experimental and diverse group. I am trying service berries and honey berry. So far they look good. Asian pears and apricots will probably be more miss than hit. In 10 yeas I have seen maybe a dozen apricots on my tree. In my neighborhood mulberries produce every year. Pears most years, followed by apples and plums. Raspberry, current, goose berry should produce every year as well. I am adding them to my yard this year. I am also trying bamboo and mushroom plugs in logs. I might try maypop and passion flower next year but I am afraid of the dry wind zapping them. My two fig cuttings made it through the winter but I babied them with a warm micro climate near my septic tank. They are a big gamble though. Contact Michael and the permaculture group for more information. There is a lot of knowledge there. Good luck and keep in touch. Were are you located?

PS I cant post their web sit here. If you want to contact them e mail me and I can send you their link.

This is kind of late replying to this post, BUT our peaches have done well. We have one dwarf against the house by the patio, faces southwest. We get early small peaches. Our big peach tree has been wonderful, HUGE peaches in September, but the tree needs to be cut down. It's infected with something, forget the name of the buggers, and the nursery said it's probably way too late to save it. I want to replace it.

And our apricots sound like Dustin's. It's one of our original trees at this house, close to 23 years old and I'm not sure if we've even had 23 apricots from it in all those years. We also have a dwarf apricot, stands next to the large one. NO apricot has ever ripened on the dwarf. We've kept it because it has pretty yellow foilage in the fall.

I had a hazelnut tree for about 3 years, but DH whacked it with the weedeater and it never came out of it. I know I needed 2 of them, but turns out I really didn't :)