I agree they aren’t as crisp or tasty. Nothing I’ve tried is nearly as crisp. Sweetcrisp is low on yield. Maybe half of the big producers like Emerald. It also needs pollination or set is very low. So you will need another variety that blooms early and bee activity.
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Oops I forgot to reply to this. It grows perfectly well in my climate and is better than any other SHB for sweetness/taste. But all of the SHB have been a bit lower in sweetness for me compared to the northern ones. I’m not sure why that is as they are in a very hot (more “southern-like”) spot in my yard. Maybe they get more diluted in rain compared to the northern ones…
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I’m pretty close to you and have found my SHB varieties overall lacking in sweetness as well. I’m about to give up on Sunshine Blue and Misty, which have been productive, but are several steps below what I get at the local farmers market. Since most of the vendors are coming in from PA, WV and cooler places I expect they might be growing northern bushes. Two years ago I added Cara’s Choice and it is much better than anything else I’m growing including Sweetcrisp, although I’ll keep Sweetcrisp for the crispness and it is still a great berry. I think I’ll have to add more northern types. It’s strange since it really seems that our environment should be good for the SHB varieties.
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If I buy more bb again I may try CC. Thing is the northerns take a lot of chilling. Much more than most things I grow. And they are very unhappy when they don’t get enough chilling.
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i grow sweetcrisp, jewel, and springhigh here in NYC w/o issue.
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The “tardiva” suggests to me that there must be a “precoce” out there as well. I looked it up, and that appears to be the case (see below). Anybody know anything about this one?
https://www.conservatoirevegetal.com/?pg=product-detail&pt=1&st=3&sp=110
From Google Translate:
“Peach of small caliber, rounded, with thick epidermis, pubescent, striated red, with very red winey flesh, white around the core, very juicy. Picking second and third week of August. Moderately vigorous, basitone, erect and stocky tree. Variety very insensitive to blistering. Late flowering (March 19-24), campanulate flower.
Origin: Dordogne, Alain BREUILLE collection.”
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There are dozens of Sanguine varieties. Tardeva is Italian for late so I assume this peach came from Italy. In fact it is not particularly late, I assume there was a mix-up in the naming somewhere. There is another peach called Sanguine Tardive sold by Arboreum which I expect may be the real thing. Whatever Sanguine Tardeva is, it is a great peach!
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It sounds like it! I’m going to try grafting Indian Free and Red Haven this spring, but I’ve made a note to track down Sanguine Tardiva to add later.
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Scott - Have SWD found your yard and Josephine raspberry or Triple Crown blackberry? I see other members say Josephine is too late as it runs into SWD season.
Not sure if we have SWD here on the shore as I haven’t grown berries in some time but am advising a young couple just starting an orchard.
Zone 7 east coast growers: do your SWD arrive in August and stay until when?
SWD are not in my yard. I spray spinosad early for the moths and my presumption is that is thinning out the SWD. Or maybe I am lucky so far.
Note that I am not growing these two right now, no room and too busy to keep the birds off. They are on the list because they grow very well for me and I am dreaming of them 
I do still have the currants, gooseberries, blueberries and some Galaxy and other blackberries which have no SWD.
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for me PNW zone 8b these are my top
white flesh peach white lady
yellow flesh peach pix zee
cherry rainier
apple fuji & gala
mulberry IE
soft persimmon hachiya
crunchy persimmon fuyu
grape himrod and flame
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I like many of the things in my yard, but the only species I have tasted enough varieties of to have a firm and informed opinion on is blueberry, and I’ll say with authority: Ka-Bluey (Gurney’s trademark) is my favorite by a country mile, and my kids, neighbors and extended family agree. I’ve moved about a third of my patch over to it and I’ll stop there, since one can only pick so many early/midseason berries.
It has a sweet, “bright” flavor with just a bit of tartness for complexity, and the berry is medium sized with a great skin/juice ratio and a firm “pop.” And it ripens slowly over a long picking period, which would make it useless for machine harvesting but perfect for kids in the back yard.
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Very vanilla boring list here but for us the best in each category:
Apple - Honeycrisp
Peach - Red Haven
Pear - Bartlett
Blueberry - Elliott
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These lists are great. However, it just motivates me to order more trees! $$$ 
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It’s interesting to me that you like the northern highbush varieties better. My southern highbush ‘O’Neal’ has been my best tasting berry by far. They are amazing, better than my sweetcrisps as long as they are left to fully ripen. If picked as soon as they turn blue, they are OK. If left until they are deep blue they are incredible. I bring them into work with store-bough blueberries and have people try them side-by-side. People are just blown away and I hear a lot of “I had no idea blueberries could taste like that.”
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I’ll do hickories & hicans. You cannot go wrong with any of these cultivars. You need (2) per category for-pollination.
Shellbark hickory:
Longnecker (won best nut PA nut growers 2020)
Keystone
Fayette
Selbhers (wow is this sweet)
Henry
Shagbark hickory:
Grainger
Porter
“Grimo Keystone” (provisionally named “Grimo Keystone” and was once provisionally named “Grimo-5”). It’s what Grimo Nut Nursery in Canada has been selling as Keystone Shellbark since they went into business (you’d have to email or call to ask if it’s what they’re still grafting). But, this nut has 5-leaves rachis mainly. It’s a Shagbark hickory.
Hicans:
Underwood
T-92
Cobles Sweeties
Clarksville
- be forewarned that hicans are generally a pull for hickory weevil to (a) location.
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You’re just up the road from me. Which have you tried and they failed?
Hi Scott, I have a question…“Nadia does not ripen well”…can you elaborate a bit on that ? I have 2 trees growing well, no fruit yet but suspect this may be the year. I am 5b but probably not that different in summer, your growing season is perhaps slightly longer and maybe, bit hotter, maybe, we are probably drier, (although still quite humid)but I think very comparable.
It turns red when still very under-ripe, the birds attack it with a vengeance, and when they actually start to ripen the tops get too soft when the bottoms are still under-ripe and the flavor fades fast. I had a similar problem with Spring Satin, another plum hybrid.
I am going to put Elephant Heart and Luisa on the Nadia stock in a couple months.
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Agree with Scott that Nadia turns red early and need several weeks (in my case over a month) to ripen. My area is colder and not as hot so I don’t have uneven ripened fruit Scott has. They ripen well and taste good, but only a hint of cherry.
@scottfsmith, my first two plums of Elephant Heart were impressive, very large and tasty. I am going to graft more of it. (wood from a friend who has the tree).
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