Who has one producing and how do you like the fruit? I’m grafting one this year which I can get pears from in a couple of years and trying to determine if I want to multi-graft the tree or not.
Wow, I’ve never heard of this cultivar. Will be interested to hear about it. What a pretty name.
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There is very little I know about it. The picture shown below can be seen on this website https://npgsweb.ars-grin.gov/gringlobal/accessiondetail.aspx?accid=%20PI+541336
I’m not sure if it’s the same pear as this one or if this is a different sport but I’m growing both http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/acc_search.pl?accid=%20PI+541179 “Listed by Hedrick as ‘Duchesse d’Angouleme Bronzee’ and by Ragan as ‘Bronz Duchess.’ Found in the garden of M. Weber, Dijon, France and introduced in 1873. Appears to be a sport of Duchesse d’ Angouleme. Resembles Duchesse d’ Angouleme in tree and other characteristics but fruit is russeted and often displays a red blush. Superior to Duchesse d’Angouleme in dessert quality but appears to be somewhat smaller in size. Tree vigorous, productive, true dwarf on quince. Moderately resistant to fire blight.”
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The duchess bronzee may be a different cultivar. See this link below since the picture appears this is a more rounded pear http://www.treesofantiquity.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=201
. I’m grafting both. They look like very different bronzee pears which ars grin lists seperate but does not discuss differences. I’ve got several large duchesse d’angouleme pear trees that are not bronzee as your aware. I may grow them on the same rootstock to do an exact comparison using Douglas as an interstem on callery since duchess is believed to be one of Douglas pears parents.
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Yes and duchess bronzee was from 1870
Duchesse d’Angouleme Bronzee entered usa February 1st 1983, first developed in 1873 there are probably lots of different sports with similar names, I showed you information for “Duchesse d’Angouleme Bronzee”
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For those not familiar with the non bronzee version of Duchesse d’angouleme more pictures can be seen here Largest / Best tasting pear and here Here comes the 2016 apple and Pear harvest! of the ones I grow. These are a couple of pictures I took last year. 
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I had some trees that produced of the twenty dollar bills. My neighbors kept stealing them when they were not ripe at the ten dollar ripening stage. I ended up pulling them all out.
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Maybe I should send you guys a couple of sticks of Andrew Jackson’s. Scions are limited unlike the washingtons which seem to be easier to grow and ripen.
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Fireblight resistant?
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Corvallis says that it’s blight resistant!
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They seem to be extremely fireblight resistant.
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What root stock did you use for this and did it work well for it?
They were gorgeous and broke off in a wind storm so I will need to try again. Lost a lot of grafts this year to that storm but most I had backups.
Ouch. I am thinking of using a OHxF root stock since I can only get two scion of this and I am not sure how reliable other root stock choices are.
Most things work fine on ohxf
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They actually look like the pears on the pear tree I had in my yard years ago. I never could get anyone to tell me what pear tree it was. The people I bought the house from were never available to tell me what it was either. They moved out of state before I bought the house.
When do these ripen? Are they hard when they are picked and have to be stored before they are actually ripe? They were as big as my hand. Just curious.
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They are normally picked hard but they certainly are edible on the tree and can turn to a fairly sugary pear on the tree. They start to get damage in my area quickly so I do not wait as long as I would like to. The pears are very late ripening in the fall eg. September, October, November with the later being better.
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Here they often rot in the center when allowed to ripen on the tree with a displeasing graininess and they seem to ripen over a fairly long period, making them extra tricky to harvest as a very sweet pear. When timing is right, they are as good a pear as I’ve harvested in NY but not an especially reliable producer. They are not only FB resistant, but also less susceptible to psyla and fabracea leaf spot than Bosc or Seckel. These, along with stink bugs are the worst pests to pears in the NE.
After all these years, I still find timing the harvest of pears one of the greatest challenges of all tasks in managing orchards. My method now is to try to pick about half at peak ripeness and the rest a bit green. The riper pears are best but don’t store well. I still have the greener ones in storage, but they are no better than store bought.
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Alan,
Nature helps us out a lot with pears due to the typically drier climate and hot sun in the summer. Our dry climate reduces fungus numbers in the summer that would rot pears. July and August have virtually no rain most years but lately we to have had exceptions. When we tilt the pear up and they fall off in our hand than we know they are ripe. I can’t imagine how hard duchess would be to pick let alone ripen properly in a different climate that had higher annual rainfall. In my opinion our growing season would ripen them better if it was slightly longer at times but most years it’s ok. I’ve picked them in November before when my hands were pretty cold.
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