I'm not an expert but if you are in a zone 9, you should be able to grow Longan and probably Wax Jambu also. You should get your plants into a large pot the first year and let it grow and adjust to your location for at least one year and then plant it out in early Spring when there is no chance of frost. By having it in a container, you can move it inside to a garage or some other warmer location in case you do get frost in the winter time. Once your plants get a little larger, they should be a little more cold tolerant. There are people in this forum that grow lychees in zone 6-9 so you should definitely be able to grow Longan in a zone 9b.

It's not cedar-apple rust. Looks more like scab, a fungal issue than can affect both apples and pears although many disease resistant varieties available. I'd take samples of the affected leaves into your local extension office for an accurate diagnosis and the best methods to treat this problem in your area - appropriate treatment and timing can vary by location and I have no idea how prevalent this may be in FL or what they recommend. FWIW, scab does not necessarily require treatment. It depends quite a lot on how severe the disease is and how much leaf loss occurs as a result. My favorite apple variety - Gravenstein - is extremely prone to scab, yet I grew it for years and never, ever sprayed. It lost some leaves during the season but nothing drastic and scab seldom does anything more than blemish the appearance of the fruit - it remains totally edible. So spraying fruit trees is NOT a requirement if you are able to tolerate less than pristine looking trees and fruit.

Melissa, all apple trees from nurseries today are grafted to a root stock. It is the root stock that determines the size of the tree. An espalier tree is just the way the tree is trained to grow and not a type of tree. In your 4' x 25' area, with the right root stock, you could get as many as 6 apple trees planted 4' apart. We have semi-dwarf trees planted 4' apart in our tree rows (we have 17,000 trees in our orchard). In our retail nursery, we stock all dwarf and semi-dwarf trees and tell our customers what root stock they are getting. Most nurseries do not do that so you have no idea what size tree you might end up with. The most common dwarf root stock is Bud 9 or B9 and semi-dwarf is M26 or M9. If you contact Whiffletree Farm & Nursery, they can help you with the right trees for your situation. I know they grow a super-dwarf tree on M27 root stock that gets no taller than 6'-7'. Whiffletree is north of Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario. Her is one of our tree rows planted to espalier on M26 root stock spaced 3' apart. We also have a 3,000 tree apple tree maze planted to espalier! Hope this helps!

Been trying to identify the original. been paying close attention to it characteristics ect this year. Have someone coming to try and ID from a local fruit association. this tree is our family tree so I'm positive it had not been previously grafted (before this year). it was pretty large in the spring so wanted to leave a few branches to nurse the rootsystem. It's a vigorous tree. I have grafted to rootstock with a rosey glow scion which is an early ripening sport of pink lady. Very interested to see if it produces apples close to the original tree