The Warren Pear

[George Collins]

I thought I would share a piece of information with everyone that I'm fairly excited about: the Warren pear.

According to Johnson's Nursery, the Warren is rated for zones 5-9 which, I believe, covers most of the folks that post regularly here. The Warren has a few attributes that seem, on paper, to make it a fairly attractive option:
1. Some believe it to the best tasting of all the pears.
2. It has never been known to be affected by fire blight.
3. It's self fertile.
4. It is reputedly a "good keeper."

Here is an excellent article from the LA Times.


The Warren is carried by Johnson's Nursery which is ranked in the top five online nurseries. Johnson's Nursery is where I bought the one planted in our forest garden. Compared to every other pear tree we planted last winter, its growth was spectacular which is consistent with the performance of the Warren planted in my neighbor's forest garden.



I bought several more this year and planted the last one just today.

[matt walker]

Ok, I'm sold. Thanks for the heads up George. Quick question, what sort of spacing are you using for semi dwarf trees, assuming you are planting some?

[George Collins]

I don't know of any semidwarfs that I've planted. The recommended spacing for a semidwarf, I believe, is 15'. Last year it was a forest garden which has a unique spacing requirements. This year it's a streuobstwiese, for which the spacing scheme is being S.W.A.Ged. So as for an actual orchard layout, I've never actually used a recommended spacing and am relying on memory of what I've read back when.

My rule of thumb:
•Dwarf - 10'
•Semidrawf - 15'
•Standard - 20'
•Apples - 30' (because some friendly guy from PA said that's what I should do.)

In the forest garden, the distances between standards and apples were multiplied by 1.3.

In the streuobstwiese, the distances were multiplied by 2.0.

[matt walker]

Thanks George. I'm definitely going for the more open spacing. I appreciate the input.

[Lollykoko]

George, I will keep that variety in mind. I'm hoping to get quite a few pine trees cut early enough this year to make room for fruit trees on the hillside this spring. I'd like to plant a couple varieties of each type of tree fruit this year.

[pa_friendly_guy]

Go for it Lolly, like they say, The Best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, The second best time to plant a tree is today. I am planning on a tree planting spree this spring as well, I have the bug, I have not planted any fruit trees here on the hill in many years, This year I want to plant both fruit and nut trees. A lot of experimentation for me actually, I want to plant some trees that are suppose to grow in my zone but I know of no one who is actually growing them around here. Pecans, almonds, and paw paw are all suppose to be hardy to zone 6 which is what they now claim my place is, I have always figured zone 5 because the Mountains next to me had always been classed as that. They have now changed even the Ridge to zone 6 so I should be safe using that zone to pick plants and trees. It may be that the newer varieties that are available today will survive better this far North. I believe that is the case with Pecans, or it maybe that some fruits have just fallen out of style today. I believe that is the case with Pawpaw and Gages trees. You certainly have never seen Crape Myrtle growing this far North, but I have now seen a variety that claims to be hardy to zone 6. I was down south for a wedding a couple of years ago when the crape myrtle was in bloom. I had never seen anything like it, it was so beautiful, and it was Everywhere. I immediately wanted some for my yard, until I found out that is was not really very cold hardy and just would not grow around here. Now they claim to have a variety that will survive my winters. I think it is smaller, more like a small bush than the small trees that I saw down south, but the flowers are still beautiful. I need more beauty in my life, I think we all do. Plant as many trees as you can afford Lolly, or plant as many as you can Air Layer, or plant as many as you can acquire in any legal way. And if you have to resort to acquiring some by " Art " well, thats OK with me too, Just don't get caught.