To add a data point to the list, my Ayers graft has multiple flowers on it this year. I grafted it two years ago onto a Bartlett tree. Seckle took three years to flower but I haven’t been able to get a fruit off it yet. The seckle grafts from @joleneakamama are loaded with flowers this year so here’s hoping.
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I took photos today of my last pear blooms of the year if anyone is interested in late bloomers. Varieties do vary a bit but usually maintain their blooming order. My latest is always Gorham (and its russeted sport Grand Champion) with Paragon/Yungen just a few days prior. This year Rocha is still in full bloom - a little later than the last few years. Other varieties that have just finished bloom are Shenandoah, Cold Snap and Joey’s Red Fleshed. Of the Asians, 20th!(upload://enQaSKZFHySS2NP5fRRMVItNyvn.jpeg) Century and Korean Giant were the last.
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I really like Luscious. It ripens long after my Clapps, so extends the season. It tends to produce in clumps of five, so requires thinning if you want bigger pears. I prefer the taste over Clapps.
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My understanding is that they are the same. It seems that the pear was named Yungen originally and maybe the younger folks at the Oregon Experiment Station didn’t know about that and released it under the new name. Here is what GRIN has about the two.
Yungen’
Type: Cultivar name
Named for John A. Yungen, Professor Emeritus Oregon State University, Southern Oregon Research and Extension Center, in appreciation of his years of service and his fondness for
Sugar, David Oregon State University
’Paragon’
Type: Cultivar name
SNP data 2019 indicates synonymy
CPYR 2622
Type: Site identifier
Group: LOCAL
Corvallis local number
EUROPEAN CULTIVAR
Type: Site identifier
Group: CROPTYPE
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Everything said above is correct. See the information here from @Vohd and @alanmercieca Experience with 'Paragon' pear?
As I have mentioned before comice is not a strong growing pear here in Kansas and half of those I have growing I lost to disease. Paragon takes back after the comice genes and not the Bartlett genes. I’ve not given up on it but I’m not currently growing it.
Thanks for this info!
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Get kieffer and then graft to it next year 
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I had a similar situation as yours, but with Mutsu apple. I grafted it to 3 separate trees (multiple varieties on each tree). 2 trees started to produce on the 3rd year, the other tree didn’t even bloom in 6 years. Sometimes we don’t understand nature’s ways.
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Hybrids made with ‘Bartlett - Max Red’ = in part “Its tree resembles that of Bartlett except possibly having a little less vigor”, so weak growing could be caused by both ‘Bartlett - Max Red’ and ‘Doyenne du Comice’
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Bartlett is a strong grower here.
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I am not sure if I understand it correctly, yet in the Passport info for ‘Bartlett - Max Red, it sounds to me like they are saying that some of the seedlings created using ‘Bartlett - Max Red’ will not take on the same vigor as Bartlett, instead taking a lower vigor.
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We planted two Clapp’s in 2004 that came from two different sources. One was on OHxF97 and for the other from a local orchardist the rootstock was listed simply as standard. OHxF97 produced a larger tree. It didn’t take us quite 11 years for first fruits, but this was the first year the trees were really full. But that’s true of some other apple and pear varieties as well.
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My Clapps is from Millers and was listed as a “standard” and I’m just assuming it’s on OHxF97. It bloomed this spring but did not set fruit. It was however blooming with my Colette. The Colette was loaded with fruit this year (third year of blooming, planted at the same time), it dropped a lot, and as usual had some significant fire blight strikes and I had to take the top of the central leader. I’d guess both trees stand @ 18’ now. A third tree planted at the same time was Beurre Bosc. It died back to just above the graft. It’s now about 10’ tall, but I’m not sure it will ever be able to fruit in my climate.
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Our Bosc has been a regular producer for several years, and we’re in a similar climate.
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Sorry coming late here, missed some posts.
I’m glad to hear it is not only me… I gave up on my Tyson after 15+ years. Maybe it needs to be grafted to some other mature tree.
Grand Champion is another pear that never fruits. I still am keeping it but it will be its 19th year next year and still no bloom.
This year the crows took most of my pears, only one stand has any fruit left. I think that stand is close enough to the road to scare them off.
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Scott,
When I moved to Sebastopol, CA, I started planting apples and pears around the perimeter of a fenced “horse corral” of about 2/3 acre. After a few years, I started top-working some of the pears that did not turn out as well as I had originally hoped. I had grown Honeysweet in MS and liked it a lot, but here the taste has not been as good though the tree that was grafted and planted in 2003 has grown well. I have since grafted about a dozen different cultivars to it - one being Tyson. It was grafted in the spring of 2015 and I had fruit in 2017! No fruit in 2018, a small number in 2019 and a very good fruit set in 2020 with enough fruit to fill a quart jar with dried pears. No fruit on that graft this year but two very small fruit on another puny graft on what I think is a Keiffer.
So, bottom line, try grafting onto a good mature tree to see what happens. It certainly is a good pear.
BTW, my best pears in north Mississippi were Warren and Seckel. T.O. Warren was my fruit mentor.
Thanks for everything you do for this forum!
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Scott,
I have Gorham that has fruited in the past but had a fireblight strike this spring and I lost most of the tree… I think it blighted due to being such a late bloomer. Normally pears are finished blooming when the temperatures heat up and since we rarely have rain that late in the season, we seldom have much blight. I’ll occasionally miss some rat tail bloom and have a strike. Then about once every 10 years we have an epidemic. The last one was in 2015. Ornamental pears through out the area had lots of blight - I lost several mature trees and many grafts. That said, many varieties with known sensitivity were only slightly affected or not at all.
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Our Tyson, obtained from Fedco, took ten years to first fruit, but it has become a favorite for flavor, sweet, but spicy. Its melting flesh, as good as it is, however, means that the pears don’t keep well. We took them to farmers market yesterday, but I’m not sure how many will still be sellable by next Wednesday.
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Had a few flowers on Tyson last year and this year @scottfsmith I need to go see if it fruited. Like everyone mentioned I noticed it is very delayed in fruiting. We all grow hundreds of pears so it can be very challenging sometimes knowing what I have or don’t have.
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