First blooms from an apple tree I grew from seed. Only planted out three black twigs the first year, finally starting to see some blooms. Now if I can talk mother nature into not freezing again....
Lost one hive out of four, much better this year. Put feed shims and sugar bricks on a couple weeks ago, will check today to see how much they have used, only about a week away from bloom.
Simply blend what you are already planning on planting together, clusters of 3-4 each should work fine. Its not a large area, pollination shouldn't be a problem with persimmons.
If your planning on having multiple stands, then I would diversify the plantings. Having a few of everything in each planting will help insure there will be some kind of mast or browse in each stand location year to year.
Chestnut crab has been the same way for me, by far the earliest bloomer here. It has produced just enough to tell it is true to type. It has already split, everything else is still pretty dormant.
How soon do you start getting swarms TreeDaddy? Dad is spending the winter in north Florida, thought about asking him to put out a swarm trap, he will be coming back around mid march. Any chance of catching a swarm that early?
I think H2O has a good idea, save some scion and graft onto the mature trees for a scion backup. Bark grafts and cleft grafts are a good way to get started.