Going to add another row of Douglas , harrow sweet, and Duchess D’ Angoulme next year.
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I got douglas, dabney, dana h, and clara f scions coming for my 50 ohf84’s
Need to get warren, FondanteDML, and a couple others I know I haven’t heard of:)
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Decided 4 trees of douglas are enough. They produce so many pears!
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I read an article written by Osman Ayer about the history and parentage of ‘Douglas’ and ‘Ayer’ pears, very interesting. Wish I could find it again. There was a mature ‘Douglas’ on Davenport Winery’s property in Eudora 20 years ago, he had a tornado blast his place since then. Don’t know if it’s still there. Osman’s farm was around Sibleyville according to a 1910 colored plat map I’d once seen.
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This might be worth reading Anyone growing the Ayer pear? Its not the same pear as Ayers .think you will find what you are after.
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I read the links in the ‘Ayer’ topic. Some old info confusion, Sibley in Cloud County for Sibley in Douglas County were he lived over 50+ years. Sibleyville and Sibley in Douglas County are the same place, post office used one name, railroad depot used the other. The death notice called him Omar, the old article I had seen listed Osman. I believe ’ Estella’ is one of his, your link of ‘Estella’ as an interstock in the 1920’s sourced it from a " middlewestern" nurseryman; one of Ayer’s grandaughters is named Estella from a list of surviving family. I still couldn’t find his memoir I read years ago, probably in a yearly horticulture journal. In it he described finding ‘Ayer’ as a seedling in his vineyard near ‘Kieffer’, said this was near the road where passerby’s would habitually pick and eat one of his ‘Kieffers’ and throw the core into his vineyard, He then gave a thorough identifying description of the new tree and convincing evidence that ‘Seckle’ was the other parent and he had ‘Seckle’ on his property.
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Today is April 12th 2023 Douglas has been blooming a few days. Leona, ts hardy, improved kieffer, kieffer, charles harris, menie, ya li, duchess d’ anglome, tenn, lincoln all overlap the bloom.
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It never made it to the yard, though still growing like a beast where its been. Im probably going to move in the next year, so unfortunately its future is uncertain.
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My Douglas tree looks great. Had a really cold March so it’s coming to life later than last year but I’m hoping it gets pollinated. Unfortunately my most likely pollen partner (Dewdrop) took some damage near the graft. I put some protection around it and I’m hoping it will heal up.
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Your trees look gorgeous. Ours are still at silvertip, 70 today and tomorrow should move things along:)
I have scions I got from mike to grafr my friends tree, a cuttings repository for later use.
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Back in 2015 when i started this thread douglas were a very rare pear. The majority of people had never heard of douglas. Now it is 2023 and in that short period of time douglas have actually became a well known pear. It makes you wonder how many great pears would have been or were lost to time. Thankfully historical records were partially available. The ars grin in corvallis has preserved many such varities and made them available to the public. Douglas is not perfect it still needs a pollenizer.
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Small update: Douglas is covered in flowers. It’s been in bloom for about a week. Sunrise and Dewdrop just opened 1-2 clusters. Fingers crossed for pollination.
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Douglas will come through for you! It produces very young. Would love to see a photo! Since it is from nearby douglas county Kansas it is a very tough tree! Hopefully you get a good day for the pollinators to work.
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