I’ll make the attempt. I’ve attached a photo of the 120 year old pear tree, possibly a Duchess d’Angouleme Pear .
9 Likes
Gorgeous tree. That tree is a pleasure just to look at.
1 Like
Someone planted that pear for their heir. In this case, you were the heir!
2 Likes
Is that a pawpaw underneath it? Nice.
The tree in the foreground is a walnut sapling. The large pear tree was planted around the time the house was built in the 1890’s. My father is almost 93 so I’m really trying to graft the pear scions onto rootstock as a gift for him in that he’ll know it will live on. When he was a boy he’d sneak out of the house from the second floor window and climb down the pear tree to freedom.
8 Likes
These Duchesse d’Angouleme pears look like pears I had on a tree I had at my house years ago. I thought what I had was a Kieffer pear. By looking at these pears I may have had a Duchesse d’Angouleme pear instead. The pears that this tree had were huge. Some were bigger than the open size of my hand. If they fell when I was mowing the grass they would it was like being hit with a lead weight. I think I need to find a place that has this tree? Is this Duchessse d’Angouleme FB resistant?
The pears made great pear butter. If you ate them earlier than being completely ripe they ate like an apple or Asian pear. I liked eating them better before they got softer.
4 Likes
They are fireblight resistant. Never had a FB strike on any of my trees ( I grow several).
4 Likes
I will order one today. I did not see any reference to the FB resistance with the info I had found. TY for the clarification. We will see what pear tree I actually had years ago. It was a very good pear for production and being disease resistant including being FB resistant. I never really had to do anything to it as far as spraying. It was a full sized tree when I bought the house. I bought the place in the winter and moved in during February.
2 Likes
They ripen late in the fall and they are worth growing. Not a melting sweet perfumed pear but they are still a decent pear in their own way.
1 Like
I am not too much into those melting type pears. So many get too soft and mushy for me. I prefer a harder type pear. The one I thought was a Kieffer ripened late in the fall and was harder. It only got really soft if it was very, very ripe. It stayed green on the outside like the pictures of the Duchesse d’ Agouleme in this thread. It may have very well been the Duchesse pear. I have a Kieffer pear ordered as well. In three years I will probably know one way or the other.
1 Like
Duchess and kieffer were crossed in Kansas to make Douglas. Douglas and Duchess are the fastest fruiting pears I grow often producing pears in 2-3 years. See this article Full text of "The Douglas pear". Hopefully will post pictures of Douglas this year. It’s a better pear than kieffer or Duchess if you like soft pears which I do. I don’t mind firm pears either.
2 Likes
I think you said it best in an earlier post similar to this. Don’t expect to bite into a Kieffer and expect a smooth buttery type pear (something like that).
1 Like
Bill,
Yes it’s all about expectations. This is what I said “There is nothing wrong with kieffer but there is something wrong with someone planning to bite into a drippin’ honey pear and having a mouthful of kieffer. Those pears are night and day different.”
Asian pears,unripe duchess, kieffer etc. are firm but in the hot Kansas sun can be very good. The type of pears I don’t care for is those void of flavor, probably because I don’t know the proper way to prepare them. Many orchards are very profitable that sell those bland pears I’m told because they are popular in certain areas. Duchess can be blan in the wrong area or if there is to much rain. To much rain is seldom a problem in Kansas.
2 Likes
Great information. I did not know that about the Douglas pear. I need to look for one of those. I have ordered the Douchesse and the Kieffer. Might as well cram the Douglas in there and have a taste competition between there here on my soil. I agree with what your said about they can taste differently where they are grown. Only way to know is to grow one yourself. I’ve had some fruit trees I’ve had to take out because here they do not taste very good at all. So why waste the growing space for either a non productive tree or a variety that just doesn’t taste good enough to keep growing. I can get enough poor tasting fruit from the grocery store.
2 Likes
I searched the internet and could not find a single actual picture of Douglas pears. They are a gold color when ripe with tough skin and tasty flesh. I’m going to post some pictures this year since so little information is out there. This is what ARS Grin said "
Raised as a Kieffer seedling by O.H. Ayer, of Lawrence, Kansas. First propagated in 1907. Believed a cross of Kieffer and Duchesse d’Angouleme. Fruit resembles Kieffer in form but inclined to be smaller in size. Skin greenish-yellow in color, reasonably free of blemish. Flesh fairly tender, quite juicy, not very gritty. Sprightly, pleasing flavor, although at times fairly acid. Superior to Kieffer in dessert quality. Midseason. Tree fairly vigorous, productive, highly blight resistant. - H. Hartman, 1957.
In regions where blight and heat make pear-growing precarious, and pears with oriental blood, as Kieffer, Garber and Le Conte, must be grown, Douglas, which belongs with the pears just named, might well be tried. It is better in flavor than any other variety of its class, The trees come in bearing remarkably early, and are as productive as those of Kieffer, though hardly as large or vigorous. The trees are inclined to overbear, in which case the fruits run small. The variety has little to recommend it, but those who grow Kieffer might put it on probation with the hope of growing a fruit passably fair for dessert. Douglas is a seedling of Kieffer crossed, it is believed, with Duchesse d’Angouleme by O. H. Ayer, Lawrence, Kansas, about 1897. Tree medium in size and vigor, upright, very produc-tive; trunk slender, smooth ; branches slender, dull brownish-red. Leaves 3 1/4 inches long, 1 1/2 inches wide, thick ; apex taper-pointed ; margin glandless, finely and shallowly serrate; petiole 1 5/8 inches long. Flowers 1 1/4 inches across, white or occasionally with a faint tinge of pink, 11 or 12 buds in a cluster. Fruit matures in October; large, 3 1/4 inches long, 2 3/4 inches wide, obovate-pyriform, tapering at both ends like the Kieffer; stem 1 5/8 inches long, slender; cavity deep, narrow, compressed, often lipped; calyx small, partly open; basin furrowed; skin thick, tough; color pale yellow, heavily dotted arid sometimes flecked with russet dots numerous, small, light russet or greenish; flesh tinged with yellow, firm but tender, granular, very juicy, sweet yet with an invigorating flavor; quality good; core closed, axile; calyx tube short, wide; seeds long, plump, acute. – U.P. Hedrick, The Pears of New York, 1921." - https://npgsweb.ars-grin.gov/gringlobal/accessiondetail.aspx?1436659
1 Like
The Douglas pear sounds like it has a lot of good attributes. I like the fact it is less gritty. That is a big turn off to me with pears. That and if they get too soft it is like a sloppy mess to try and eat.
1 Like
Douglas does get mushy when dead ripe. Has no grit at all in my experience. Ate them many years ago.I’ve never ripened the pear on my property but can tell you a lot more about them after I do this year weather permitting.
1 Like
No grit? I have to get one of these pear trees. My biggest dislike with a pear is the grit. Second dislike is a soft mushy pear. Thank you for the picture and information about the Douglas pear. PLEASE keep us updated about this pear on your property.
1 Like
The rootstock has been shipped. The grafting excitement builds.
2 Likes
Does Drippin’ Honey flower more around the time of Korean Giant, Hosui, shinko, Kosui, Chojuro and Shinsui or more around the time of Seuri and Raja?