Douglas came through the worse drought since the dust bowl with pears still on it! There were early spring freezes which caught Douglas in full bloom so any pears are a miracle.
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That’s great Clark!!! It is amazing you got any pears after the weather we have had this year. I planted 5 new pears this spring, and 3 died. Douglas was one of those that bit the dust. 
I will probably try it again next year. I read an article about it you linked to awhile back, and decided I needed t grow that pear!
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Yes this weather was the hardest I’ve seen it. Right now we have had less moisture than the average desert according to experts who claim anything below 10 inches is a desert. Keeping anything alive in this weather is nearly impossible. This is as bad as it’s been since the last dust bowl.
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How I missed Douglas! Very nice sugary pear but as always lacking the things that would make it the best! I’ll eat these pears any day all the same because there is something very refreshing about eating them! Most of these pears will be only yellow and not have the red blush.
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Douglas is a very sweet / sour balanced refreshing tasting pear! The flavor drastically improved with age. When they are at the best like they are this year they are somewhat melting with a good sweet very juicy flavor. They have some grit but not overly gritty! We only wished there were more Douglas pears! The skin is leathery and thick. Highly recommend growing this pear but remember it blooms early in the spring so don’t expect pears every year. The complex spicey flavor it lacks it makes up for with its zesty sprightly flavor. It’s the best of the disease resistant hybrids I’ve tasted. Likely due to the drought and the heat it is at its best quality this year!
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Douglas is covered in buds this year! March 24th and they are in the shuck split stage.
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Clark,
By chuck split, do you mean post-bloom (like in peaches)? If so, you are way a head of me. My pears are at bud swell.
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@mamuang
When the shuck around the bloom starts to split off as it gets ready to flower. This is Douglas and the entire tree is like that!
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Not to derail Douglas but I think my second leaf ts hardy is going to bloom also this year
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No kidding. My mouth is watering.
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Yes ts hardy is a fast one @Derby42. This is what it looks like! I dont grow a lot of them but they seem to be relatively underated. @TurkeyCreekTrees is the one who opened my eyes to the value of this pear. I’d never heard of them prior to that but every chance i get i encourage people to grow them now!
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@39thparallel & @Barkslip the douglas are a different tasting pear. They have a certain refreshing sweet and sour flavor thats kind of unique. Feel free to use any pictures you want.
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Sounds delicious. I’m learning to appreciate other than sweet.
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You are at least a week ahead of me. Several varieties of my pears are not at a bud scale separating state yet.
Our winter this yesr has been good to us so far, consistently cold, no wild temp swing ( yet). But I don’t want to jinx myself !!!
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We are all tied to our locations. My Korean Giant has lost about 2/3 of it petals and the Harrow Sweet is in full bloom. If good weather continues these two will have a good crop.
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I will have some new pears from my trees this year (if Mother Nature allows it). Grafted those in 2015 and 2016. Quite excited.
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We need to compare pears later on and see what new ones we come up with. I have one that took 10+ years coming into production. I think its Atlantic Queen but that may be completely wrong.
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Have four Douglas trees fruiting this year! They are not up to full production but there are hundreds of pears on them!
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