Hello everyone,
My husband's favorite fruits are peaches/nectarines. He's been wanting a tree for some time (can't believe he has enough figs 😉), but we only have room for one or two trees so I need to make them count! Any suggestions on favorites for flavor above all and performing reasonably well in zone 7a, we vary between high humidity and dry weather (always a gamble in northwest AR).

Let me know your top favorites ☺️, thank you so much in advance!

I personally grow Redhaven and Elberta peaches.

Love peaches so nice and refreshing.  Unfortunately they don't live too long and now I am faced with replacing mine planted in 98.
There are sooo many cultivars and very year new hybrids are developed.

Peaches are very fuzzy about soil and drainage and early frosts.

Are you looking for peaches for canning?  If so babygold are the best.

There a re so many yellow flesh fresh eating peaches.  I like redhaven (easy to grow, nice size and delicious).

I also grew some white flesh peaches (also called Chinese Peaches) and they have a unique very refreshing taste but difficult to tell when they are ripe and they ripen sporadically not mostly at one time like the other peaches.

Ultimately what variety you choose will depend on what your local nurseries sell.  
They also can give you advice on what varieties grow better in your climate and soil type.

We are looking for peaches for fresh eating and if they would be great for pies and jams, that would be a welcome bonus!

http://www.davewilson.com/home-gardens/fruit-variety-recommendations

I found this website to be informative, browse around and find specific recommendations for your situation.  This includes the USDA Zone, chill hours, late bloomers to avoid killing spring frosts, taste test winners, disease resistance etc.  A wealth of knowledge in one place.  I am choosing Indian Free, Muir, Frost and Q-1-8 peaches, largely because they are peach curl resistant, late blooming,  and said to be wonderful flavored...

BTW, they have a good variety of figs too...I recall Encanto selling some of them.

Good luck and let us know if you grow some winners.

Vic
Zone 8B
Hereford, AZ.
Hardy Chicago and Excel and big plans...

My favorites are the Honey series from DWN: Honey Royale being the king. But Honey Fire, Blaze, and Diva are similar. Adams County Nursery sells them sometimes. Don't grow any nectarine in AR unless you are willing to spray Indar for brown rot and other sprays for other issues.

Here's a good discussion on why people who know think nectarines are better than peaches but harder to grow. http://growingfruit.org/t/nectarines-just-better/11982

There is a grower on that forum from Missouri that agrees with my Honey series choice and calls them, as I do, the best fruit we can grow.

Many people like Fignutty and I are members of the forum in the link, and we go over everything you can think of about peach trees.
I also disagree about local stuff, here they sell stuff that should not be grown here, mail order rules. Some great nurseries out there. I never buy locally. All that info where, when and how on growingfruit.org.

Hi,
It is my experience that you can't make jam with peaches. Too much water content in them - I had 5 trees and reduced the number to one because of that and because they died from too much trimming.
People use to can them - here they call it peaches in syrup.
There are funny varieties now like the flat ones.
I have an Apricot tree, and find apricots to be more problem free and have a better taste.
Still haven't had enough Apricots to jam some, but you can jam them.
I have a peach tree that they call here "peach of vines" - grown from seeds. Only problem they ripen late September. I'd like one that would ripen at the end of August.
Apricots on the other hand do ripen in July !
As for nectarines, I'm having a bad time with two trees. The trees are nice but not productive and the shield-bugs have damaged all fruits so far ... The saw is getting close to those.
Good luck ! and keep us posted !