Hi Stephanie For a variety that produces reliable and does not get too big, you can try the determinate Florida 91. I am growing 2 plants of those for the community garden and will see how they do. I also like varieties that stay small and last year I tried the New Big Dwarf and it was good, produced decent tomatoes and is a small plant, this year I am also growing one and have to find a place to put it. And all my tomatoes are in their places, I have the smaller fruit varieties in one side And the larger in another side I grow all sort of tomatoes for different tastes but my very favorite are the bi-colors and hearts. Your hubby probably would enjoy a good Brandywine tomato, but those get big and not all are the same, some are not productive. The variety that I am growing for me and the community garden is a Brandywine from Monticello and I was very pleased with the flavor and production. Silvia Here is a link that might be useful: new big dwarf

No on the avocado. Doubtful on the grapefruit. HOWEVER, there are a number of hardier citrus that may do OK in Dallas. Check out some of the mandarins (Satsuma, Changsha etc.) and some of the hardy hybrid citrus such as Citrandarin, Citrumelo, Orangequat, Citrangequat, Citrange, etc.). Also, you should be aware that any citrus grown from seed may take many, many years before they are mature enough to bloom and bear. If you trim them down, they may never bear. So, unless you are young, you might want to invest in a grafted tree that is capable of bearing fruit within a year or so! Unless you are happy to grow it only for the foliage. See link below. (I do not know whether they can ship to Texas, so you may need to find a Texas grower). Here is a link that might be useful: Here's a place to get started

You should have gotten a Lapins cherry tree. Not only because it happens to be one of the few varieties that don't require another pollinator, but also because you might actually have a chance of getting any cherries, as Lapins has a lower chill requirement than many other cherry varieties. If you don't get adequate winter chill, fruits won't form, even if there was pollination. Where you live, the most important thing to do to ensure young fruit trees survive is to make sure the plants get consistently watered. The best time to plant is right after the summer is over, when plants will get a reprieve from the scorching heat. Either that or late February. Lychee fruit is a lot better than longan, but they are also much more water thirsty, less hardy, much more stingy in fruit production. If you were thinking about giving lychee a try, Mauritius and Emperor may be the best varieties to consider, as they appear to have just a slight advantage over other varieties when it comes to drought tolerance. (Emperor has huge fruit size but is said by some to taste a bit bland) Out where you live I would try to make sure the lychee gets planted somewhere where it will be shaded from the hot afternoon sun. You might also try pomelo, you certainly have the long summer heat needed to ripen it.

Champa nursery in El Monte has a lot of tropical and sub tropical cultivars, very knowledgeable owner. And lots of variety. Hey are out of keitt for the season but I bought fruit punch and Mallika mango from them and they had coconut creme mango as well. h&h nursery in Lakewood is a larger nursery with broader variety of everything... but probably won't have the more rare plants (e.g., champa has miracle fruit and will be getting cacao later this year, h&h doesn't) but I love their overall selection, especially for stone fruit. They also carry a lot of items from Dave Wilson nursery. Upland nursery in orange has nice but small collection. I have been gotrying my there more recently. Hope this helps i also recently bought some Really nice plants from plantogram in Florida and toptropicals in Florida -- both have nice online store fronts, delivery a bit expensive but it seems a lot of the tropical sand subtropicals at local nurseries come from Florida anyways. Hope this helps