Apple,
It was Harvest Queen. It was a blight resistant pear put out by the Harrow breeding station in Ontario.
Alan, I don’t know if you’ve tried that one or not. I’ve always wanted to try it ever since (years ago) the Fluffy Bunny said it was the best tree ripened Euro pear he’s tried on the Nafex forum (I don’t even know if that forum exists anymore.) Some other Nafexers also said Harvest Queen didn’t get the credit it deserved. I recall someone (can’t remember who) said everyone always wants to plant another Ontario pear (Harrow Delight) but they claimed Harvest Queen was better. That always stuck in my mind because I had Harrow Delight but not Harvest Queen.
I’ve got a couple Bartlett pears which lost a lot of wood last year to fireblight, so I need to replace them with something. I put the scions on top of the Bartletts for safe keeping, until I can get some rootstocks growing. In reality, it’s probably not the safest place to store pear scionwood. If the Bartletts succumb to fireblight this season, I will have lost my scionwood, but I’m hoping both won’t die the same season.
I occasionally slip over to the GW forum just to see if there is anything interesting going on over there. Not much happening over there but I did notice last week the Fluffy Bunny was posting some over there. That was a surprise. I also noticed Bill Fleming from Montana State Univ. had a few posts over there. Wish they were posting over here.