Gene is on the right track. You probably want a Fuyu (Jiro) persimmon; I have zero problems with this tree. Fig also no problems, and a beautiful landscaping plant. Black Mission fig is what I have, two crops a year. Have you considered grapes? V. labrusca (American) grapes like Glenora, Jupiter, Canadice, Reliance, (avail from Stark) Steuben,Kyoho, will require no spraying in Cal and can be trained to almost any shape. Asian pears are way more trouble free than apples. Pakistan mulberry works in many Cal z7 areas, available from Bay Laurel N. and Rolling River N.- don't get a mulberry sourced from Dave Wilson N. as they are grafted too high. Mulberries are no spray. Frost peach is more disease resistant than most so probably get by without spraying. Davewilson.com has excellent info on keeping trees low. Good luck, Kate.

Lakshmi, I was going to recommend Ernie Grimo, but I see you're aware of his nursery - you may just have to wait 'til next year. Most of the weeping mulberries that are available in the nursery trade are non-fruiting 'male' selections, like 'Chapparral' - so you'd have one of those 'umbrella shrubs' and no fruit, to boot. There are some fruiting(female) weepers - 'Teas Weeping', etc. I've had one - the dwarf weeping mulberry from Edible Landscaping - and was not overly impressed with the fruit - small, tart, and not especially tasty - but there are a couple of fruiting weepers that I know of in town - planted in large, above-ground planters alongside the parking lot of a small shopping center - that have very good fruit - but these are not being adequately maintained, and soon the weeping portion will be completely overtaken by non-weeping M.alba shoots from the rootstock. Guess I ought to take some cuttings and root them or bud them onto some seedling mulberries for safe-keeping.

I was about to look up truncheons...then I read a little further. Thanks for the description. I guess I have read about this a while back, but I've never tried it. After seeing sycamore listed, I may just try it. Recently the road crew came by trimming overhanging branches. I asked them to leave limbs for me (from my trees...one of which is a sycamore). I'd planned to make another brush pile, but now, I may just try to get the sycamore to sprout. I'm not sure my soil is consistently moist enough for success, but I guess it can't hurt to try. Thanks to both of you for a new experiment.

Satterlee's (North May about 70th and May) has tons of Japanese Maples and I wouldn't be surprised to see that they have the weeping mulberry either. They are expensive. You might check with Bob Scott also, and Marcum's (south side). TLC would be another place to check. There's one on Memorial between Western and Santa Fe, and one on NW Expressway. Susan