Kiwis and kiwais

I rather suspect that for every 100 people buying a kiwi, even a supposedly 'self fertile' kind, there is only one who ever gets them to successfully fruit. That's because the UK climate isn't really friendly to them, as they tend to flower early in the season; many male and female plants don't flower at the same time; few people bother to prune them correctly and just get a mass of foliage; and even if fruit does set, it takes so long to ripen that it rots on the vine before it is picked.
Knowing this to be the case, I decided to buy a 'Kiwai', Actinidia arguta, that has a small gooseberry sized fruit. The advantage of these is you eat the whole fruit without peeling, the taste is sweeter, and they flower and set fruit after the main frosts. I grew one successfully for three years which had quite a few fruit (it WAS autofertile, one called 'Issai') but then it died during last winter that was really cold. It started making new shoots but they all withered and died in the spring.
I wondered if anyone on this forum has ever grown this variety of Actinidia with success, and what they did to get it grow vigorously (it never made any real growth with us), and whether anyone knows of a source of seed for Actinidia arguta or where you can get the fruits. I've never seen any for sale in France but I'm surprised this 'mini kiwi' is not more popular. The flavour of the handful I managed to enjoy last year was wonderful!