I think I am in a particularly good spot weather-wise, I am on the side of a river valley. The cold air is below me in the deep valley. My property was an orchard 100 years ago. That probably helps a lot to make apricots easy 
I never had a single tree die, but I do have one that has not been doing well the last few years. But, it had a bad peachtree borer infection. My favorite varieties are Tomcot and Florilege, one is early and one is later. Both are super reliable.