SOME PEAR POSSIBILITIES
Two Eastern European pears, distributed by the US DA Germplasm Repository in Corvallis, OR are now available for American orchards. ‘Ubileen’ from Bulgaria, is a very early ‘Bartlett’ -type that bears fruit with a red blush. From Belgrade, Yugoslavia comes ‘Shipova’, a cross between mountain ash and pear. Its mountain ash parentage seems to give it a hardiness superior to most pears. The fruit, about the size of a ‘Sekel’ pear, is yellow with an orange-red cheek and has no grit. Both were the most disease-resistant pears in the Northwoods Nursery (Molalla, OR) orchards in 1990. Both are available from Northwoods on OH ´ F513 rootstocks.
-Article excerpted from Jan 1991 Organic Gardening Brave New World by Barbara Pleasant It was submitted by Leslie Toombs who noted that the most hardy probably would be the ‘Shipwa’ variety grafted right onto Mt. Ash rootstock.