Planting some heirlooms is fine. I planted quite a few when I was in Amarillo. But none of those are in my current orchard. Others have had better luck or different needs in an apple.

My suggestions would include Pink Lady, Goldrush, Granny Smith, Fuji, Ginger Gold, Gala, Suncrisp, and golden delicious.

You need to expect that about half what you plant won't work very well no matter how you select the candidates.

You might look into some of these types. I'm not 100% certain of what zone you are in, but I would think that most of these would work in your zone. I believe that all of these are mid to late season bloomers.

This is a really great book if you are considering apple varieties to grow ---- The Best Apples to Buy and Grow, B. Hanson, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Inc. (2005)
Varieties With Reputations As The BEST Tasting

Gala Crisp, dense, aromatic flesh. Excellent quality. Stores well. Large, vigorous tree. Requires about 140-160 days from bloom to harvest. Requires at least 600 hours of chilling.

Fuji A yellow-green skin with orange to red stripes. Crisp, juicy, white flesh with good texture. Requires about 140-160 days from bloom to harvest. Ripens mid-summer. Stores well. Susceptible to Bitter rot and red mites. Heat resistant. Requires 400-600 hours of chilling.

Granny Smith - Medium to large, waxy, grassy-green fruit. Firm and bruise resistant. Hardy, crisp, juicy, white flesh. Fairly sweet with a somewhat tart taste. Excellent quality eating and cooking apple. Keeps good texture during baking, never gets mushy. Excellent shelf life. Self-fertile. Requires about 170-210 days from bloom to harvest. Holds well in heat. Requires about 500-600 hours of chilling. Hardy in zones 5-8.

Braeburn Red, highly flavored with an even sugar to acid balance.

Mutsu (Crispin) Large, round, yellow fruit. Crunchier flesh; more juice and tartness. Distinctive, delicate, spicy flavor. Good dessert and processing apple. Excellent for applesauce and cider. Resistant to powdery mildew. Susceptible to scab, blister spot, and bitter rot. Requires 500-600 hours of chilling. Hardy in zones 4-8.

Honeycrisp

Pink Lady(Cripps Pink) Cross between Golden Delicious and Lady Williams from the Western Australian apple-breeding program. Oblong, green fruit turns yellow at maturity and is overlaid with pink or light red. Fine-grained, white flesh. Thin skin, bruises easily. Chilling requirements similar to Granny Smith (500-600)

Ashmead's Kernel A juicy, aromatic apple with a sharp flavor that is both acidic and sweet. It is believed that several weeks of storage enhance its flavor giving its high acid content time to balance with the sugars. Skin is orange or reddish bronze with golden brown russetting.

William's Pride This variety is reputed to have unusually good flavor for an early summer apple. The flesh is granular, crisp and mildly acidic. It is resistant to fire blight and powdery mildew and immune to scab and cedar apple rust.

Goldrush This variety has a spicy flavor of intense acidity and high sugar content. It is a yellow green fruit with light russetting, sometimes having an orange blush on the sunward side. It may keep for six months or more. It is immune to apple scab and somewhat resistant to fire blight and powdery mildew.

Calville Blanc D'Hiver Known for having a tart and rich taste described as effervescent. It often tastes better after storage. It has pale green skin that develops an orange color with light red dots where exposed to the sun. It can be susceptible to scab and powdery mildew.

Rubinette An offspring of Cox Orange Pippen. A very good sweet and sharp balance of taste. It can be susceptible to scab and powdery mildew.

The following three varieties are reputed to have fantastic taste. They are not as hardy though and may be more susceptible to disease:

Newtown Pippin: This apple is firm, crisp, juicy, and moderately acidic with a fresh taste. Loved by Thomas Jefferson and was a prized export to England from the United States in the 1800s. It is green in color becoming yellow to greenish-yellow with a reddish blush. It stores well. The tree is susceptible to scab and powdery mildew.

Cox Orange Pippin: It has a crisp texture and a richly aromatic and semi-tart flavor. It became the most popular apple in England and dates back to the early 1800s. The skin has an orange red blush on a light yellow background. It is susceptible to scab.

Esopus Spitzenberg: This variety is rich, juicy, and more tart than sweet. Known as another one of Thomas Jefferson's favorite apples -- along with a lot of other people. Often ranks at the top of taste tests. The skin is red with speckles of yellow. This variety is susceptible to scab, mildew and canker.

Here is a link that might be useful: dallasfruitgrower

+ with the honey crisp and williams pride. maybe mix with pristine as the 5 I got from ANC jupmed to the front and had to be thined hard the third year and every year since. each having more, bigger , cleaner and better tasting apples then any of the 100 other trees planted in 5's that year. they were on semi root stock emla 7 as deer call dwarfs hear forage.

I'd trust Fruitnut over the general advice for everywhere in the country provided by the book any day. FN probably knows as much as the authors in general and a lot more about growing in your type of climate.

I love many heirlooms but the varieties FN suggests are as good as any and easier to grow in your area than most. Their flavor will be just as distinctive and superior to store bought as would heirlooms.

Your spring frosts might not be a problem. My "spring frosts" get down to 20 degrees F and come as late as July. All of my apple trees bear heavy crops, so I don't think the frost bothers them.

If you have drought in summer, I suggest that you have some way to irrigate your trees, at least for the first few years.

Generalization: the late apples are the best storage apples, but if you have a short growing season, they won't work for you. Not many apple fruits will survive below about 30 degrees. Freezing ruins the fruit.

Thank you so much for the feedback.

The golden delicious and granny smith suggestion reminded me of my grandmother. She had apple trees, and I know for sure one was golden delicious and I'm pretty sure one was Granny Smith.

When I was a kid, we would pick and dry apples in the late summer. She did this the old fashioned way (she was born in 1901 in rural Arkansas and was like a walking, talking Foxfire book). Then she would reconstitute the dried apples into an apple butter-like sauce and then make fried pies out of pastry dough filled with the fruit compote. Holy moly, was that good stuff. Holy moly, do I miss my Nanny!

Anyway, my point is that the golden delicious did well in Tulsa and they were not the same as the bland apples now sold in the grocery store.

FWIW, I bought some organic Pink Ladies (my favorite grocery store apple) in at whole foods this weekend, and they are sure tasty.

I will have irrigation available on a permanent basis. It gets too hot and dry here in August not to.

Thanks again for the suggestions,

Neil