Yeah I live in Sydney around the same area as the Granny Smith apple originated. Not sure about what American zone our climate compares to I figured it was maybe a zone 9? Similar to some of the costal areas of California? San Francisco maybe? Regardless I went ahead and planted a range of apples modern, heritage, "low chill" English, American, French, Japanese, etc. I have about 34 different varieties at the moment. I have no idea what will work but I figure some will work and some wont. I can remove the ones that don't and graft on different types. It's fun. I based my original list of apples off the kuffle creek apple list and added some other that sounded interesting. I have the feeling that the guy from kuffle creek is on these forums but I might be wrong. I think that as long as you keep in mind that growing apples in our climate is a bit of an experiment and that they might not all work you might as well have a crack at it. That being said i would be confident that Anna and Dorset Golden will grow and fruit on the central coast. Good luck J Here is a link that might be useful: Kuffle creek apple list

This question has been asked before - my mom lives in Treasure Island, on the waterfront & has a pomegranate shrub that my dad planted over 20 years ago - it seems to do fine w/ little extra care, & if it were properly cultivated, I imagine it doing great. She gets @ least 6-8 large fruits every year from the remaining plant (there were originally 2). Sorry but I've no idea what variety; flowers are the classic red/orange & fruits get very large & are pretty sweet. I believe he got them from Park Seed, if that's any help. Somebody else nearby is growing pomegranate as well. Here is a link that might be useful: Punica granatum

As I've said, I don't expect flowers and fruit to really develop (famous last words). I have read that the flowers smell, but I have seen them flowering and fruiting (up close) and did not detect any odor--so the odor is either not too intense or temporary. Wondering more about the foliage plant itself. Still, mine has been transplanted for about two weeks now and looks great in terms of foliage.

You might have to drop down to a nursery in SoCal closer to the coast. Have any relatives there you could go to visit? Lychees are a very uncommon fruit tree. Perhaps because the plants prefer higher humidity than the warm areas of California have, so the trees can take a lot of watering to keep healthy. Or perhaps because it's a fruit people have never encountered in a grocery store because the fruit's short shelf life doesn't make it commercially feasible. You'll be more likely to find nurseries selling lychee in areas with more Vietnamese immigrants. (Lychee can also be reluctant to fruit, so I'm sure that's another reason contributing to people not having experience with them) I think it is possible to grow lychee in the southern half of the central valley, but protection from wind would be important there.