Ginnybrook pear

Clarkinks,

I understand this sentiment. When I was a kid there was a large pear tree growing in public field near my neighborhood. The tree was as large as an oak with huge pears. I have no idea how old it was, what kind it was or if it was just a chance seedling. The tree has since been cut down and is forever lost. I did manage to look near where the old tree was two years ago and found what is likely a seedling of it. The possible seedling tree is growing about a 150 ft away downhill from where the old tree was. It is in a thicket of trees near the edge of the field. Anyway, long story short I collected pears from it two years ago and grew out seedlings from that tree. I took scions, but I did not store them correctly and they shriveled up. I might attempt to get more scions from the tree this year but the pears are not particularly worth saving. The genetics of the wild tree do seem worth saving for rootstock purpose though which is why I wanted to grow some of the seeds. Also, I wanted to grow some for sentimental value as I believe this is the closest I will get to having a piece of the lost large pear tree from my childhood. The seedlings have done well so far.

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Add me to that group :wink: I will gladly pay you for this. I would love to add this to my rare collection.

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@MatthewInVA

Can you give us another follow up on ginnybrook? We all want to know how it is doing and what the real name of this pear is if it has another name. This may be a seedling.

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Clarkinks, I’ll gladly give an update.
The tree is doing good. It seems to be a bit biannual in fruit production, this year I got a bunch of fruit last year not so much. It also seems to be fairly resistant to fire blight. Fire blight took out my Seckle pear this year and hit a few of my other trees badly, but the Ginnybrook didn’t get a spot of it. Neither did my Kieffer or Gem pear.
IMO the tree is probably a seedling, maybe of Kieffer and Bosc. Seems highly likely to me to have Kieffer parentage based on the fruit texture and a bit from the taste. The tree also just looks a lot like my Kieffer tree, and blooms about the same time.
The fruit does not look much like the description from Fedco other than the size and bit of russeting. It’s possible I got a mislabeled tree or the cause of the oddly shaped fruit on the original tree was not genetic, like insect damage as you suggested. I will say the fruit does not seem that uniform, some are round, others are more classic pear shaped and they vary wildly.
Overall, it’s a great tree that produces huge fruit, so far has been disease free and I’m glad I planted it. The only issue I have with it is the branches do snap frequently from the weight of the fruit, so it needs a lot of thinning.

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@MatthewInVA

Do you have scion wood your willing to share this year? It sounds like a winner we should try to preserve. You might want to sell scions on ebay or give some out to ensure the variety lives on. If the fruits are very large and branches snap often i’m curious when does it ripen? It may be Duchess D’ Angoulme but i really dont think it is.

The Ginnybrook pears ripen in September, with most coming easily off the tree in mid September.
I will collect some scion wood this year, and I’ll contact Corvallis and see if they want some. I’ll also graft a few onto some rootstock I have just in case anything happens to this tree. I’ve never sent out scions before and I’m not sure how well I’d do but I suppose I could give it a try.
I’m surprised that Fedco hasn’t offered it again or at least some scions.
I don’t think it’s Duchess D’Angoulme but maybe. I had that pear variety and the trees appeared different to me. I lost my Duchess D, in 22 to blight. The rootstock (think it’s OHxF97) from Duchess sent up a lot of shoots and I’ll graft some of my Ginny to that for my own backup.

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@MatthewInVA

That sounds good i wish corvallis had it for their collection and if not them a nursery like @39thparallel that preserves varieties. If it ripens that early it is not Duchess D’ Angoulme. The more backups the better since noone is selling it anymore.