Your problem could be due to differences in chill requirements, which may not correlate with the ripening times. Since you have had problems establishing the trees, you may want to graft several different varieties onto your existing trees, and try to find one that leafs out and blooms at the same time as your 'Sunflower'.

I live in Winston-Salem, NC and among the pawpaws I have growing and fruiting so far, overleese, mango, rappahannock, and pa golden are among the earliest to ripen. Sunflower and prolific are the latest. I usually get fruit off the same tree over a 3 to 4 week period starting the 1st to middle of August. I usually get a couple fruits that ripen at the end of July but it depends on the season. Most all of the sunflowers are gone by mid September - usually. Sunflower is a noticibly later ripening variety. I have not noticed a particular variety to be the earliest - some years mango is my first ripe fruit, other years it will be overleese and in others pa golden. There is not a lot of difference here.

Frank, I got it from the same ultimate source, Dave Wilson Nursery. I got it through Bay Laurel Nursery, one of the other nurseries selling DW trees online. I owe another installment on the fruits. Wickson - this little apple has been excellent. It needs to hang until the background turns yellow. It keeps a long time. The taste is more like a stone fruit: sweet/sour like a plum and the aroma of peaches and apricots. Yum!! Myers Royal Limbertwig - A very nice apple on the sweet side with good aroma as well. It has the pendulant branch habit of many limbertwigs. Rambour d'Hiver - a large French apple which is pretty obscure these days. It is actually not that different from many American apples, e.g. Stayman Winesap comes to mind. Not a strong aromatic favor but a very good sweet/sour balance plus an exceptionally good crunch. Gold Rush - not too many apples this year but they are all excellent - hard, flavorful, with this unusual anise/spicy flavor. A truly great gourmet apple. The quality of the fruit has been very good. The tree did well except it gets cedar apple rust - not sure why this tree touted for such disease resitance is a CAR magnet. Most of my White Winter Pearmain dropped to early, I think the tree lacked water (it sits on a raised area). But, a couple hung on and they are really excellent apples -- something like a Mutsu but quite a bit more concentrated in aromatic flavors. My Geneva 3 hardy kiwis are coming in now, tons of 'em. They are ripening unevenly which makes harvest difficult. I don't like them until they have started to shrivel, they are too acidic before then. Fully ripened they are very good, a bit better than a good Hayward. I had a big harvest of quince and made various compotes, jelllies, etc. I don't know how big a fan I am of them, it takes a lot of quince to make jelly and I feel like I am just flavoring sugar. My wife made a baked quince recipe which was very good. If nothing else the quince will be handy as pectin for other jellies and jams. Scott

James, Thanks for the suggestion. Its a good one that I thought about but decided it was too much work for me. I've set all but two pots on top of my spring bulb garden near the house and garage. Some of the roots have grown into the soil. I'm rather pleased with my success with the cuttings that I rooted this spring. All but one have at least one fruit. One little 10 inch plant has 4 good size figs. Two pots I sunk into the ground in another spot by the foundation. I made the mistake of lifting one pot out to see the label breaking the roots that grew through the pot. It had seven figs remaining. I had already eaten 2. The next day the figs dried up an fell off. It has since grown 3 more that aren't ripe yet. I won't be so nosey again. Thanks for all your good posts. I read them all and they are very helpful. Peg