That seeds come from China isn't necessarily a bad thing unless you are worried about American customs. A lot of seeds that are sold by American professional companies are harvested in China and shipped to the USA. One problem related to buying seeds from China is getting the correct seeds. You have to be alert when buying seeds on Ebay et. al. If you buy for instance Magnolia seeds that are not properly stored (cold and moist) or are old the chances of getting decent germination are greatly reduced. Some species must be sown fresh so only buy them 'in season' (usually late autumn/early winter). Empress tree seeds are not hard to find (look at Ebay and you find lots of sellers). I believe Empress tree seeds should be surface sown because they need light to germinate. Don't know if it is sufficiently hardy where you live. Here in the Netherlands (solid zone 7) it suffers from dieback in winter but maybe that's because the wood doesn't ripen very well in our climate.

Home Depot? You're probably SOL until spring, then you can get one by ordering. I doubt Home Depot or any of the box stores will even carry them in your area. A specialty store might, but I believe your best bet is to wait until spring/summer to order from a good dealer in FLA or California. Good luck.

Ask bay laurel not to root trim. I've bought a lot of plants from, and have been happy except for the last pear, root was trimmed to almost nothing. Doans is probably low on inventory right now, but will receive their Dave Wilson trees next feb or so. Bay laurel, doans, raintree all resell Dave Wilson trees. Doans also has le Cooke trees, which are sometimes better. Womack is normally home grown trees, which I really like--but I suspect they resell a few Dave Wilson trees also If you're going to buy out of state, look at raintree, one green world, isons, just fruits and exotics--but be sure to pick the right rootstock for dallas. Anything from doans is ok here. Most everything from womacks is ok, but being mail order they sell throughout the country, so be sure to ask them if it'll grow in dallas.

Like the above poster Suzi AKA Desert Dance said are you sure you lost your trees. Example i put a potted 10 year Hardy Chicago in ground out in the open not near any structure with just some dry leaves at base few winters back it died to near ground level and produced a few figs . Then what everyone was calling the polar vortex came for a visit along with heavy snowfalls but the cold came first again it died to near soil level but produced some figs late in September going into October. I did lose some potted ones that were stored in attached garage . Give yours a chance if there inground they just may sprout near the soil level come sometime late June. I have dealt with raintree nursery and edible landscaping long time ago and had no problems just not sure if things are still the same or not. Here is Hc Jan 2014 the temp was 19 below zero here as mentioned it died to ground level but came back . I could protect it but it was put there to see what would happen otherwise , i have spare in containers. Martin