Was hoping someone can tell me what kind of pear this is. It’s in flower currently and i suspect it’s Golden spice. The tree has severly stunted a callery pear rootstock.
These are typical pear blossoms
If I’m fortunate enough to have my Golden Spice bloom in a couple weeks I should be able to compare. It did have a few blossoms last year, but I didn’t look closely at them.
Ive been working on this mystery for many many years and a couple of years more with it flowering. See this thread from last year Unknown Pear- unique flowers . So far im no closer to an answer. Whats worse is i have several of these trees all with unusual or eratic growth on callery. All have dwarfed callery which may be useful to someone as an interstem once i solve the mystery. This year may be different i got copper on them and there have been no late freezes. Fireblight destroyed what was left of the blooms last year after the frost finished the first blooms. The drought last year did not help those flowers to make fruit either. I suspect this is golden spice or another harbin cross. This pear and one other are the last of the group that had destroyed tags.
Im back to square one though golden spice blooms look somewhat like these i dont think they are close enough. Here is the link to what golden spice blooms look like. They are definately in the same family and ofcourse,weather etc. Make a little difference.
" BOTANICAL NAME: Pyrus ussuriensis ‘Golden Spice’
DESCRIPTION: Nice consistent oval canopy with glossy dark green leaves that turn an outstanding burgundy in fall. Showy white flowers in spring followed by golden yellow fruit. Good for canning. Better fruit production with cross pollination of another Pear variety.
AVERAGE HEIGHT: 6 Meters
AVERAGE SPREAD: 4.5 Meters
SUN EXPOSURE: Full sun
FLOWER COLOUR: White
FLOWERING TIME: Early spring
FOLIAGE COLOUR: Green
COLD HARDINESS: Zone 3 ( Should survive upto -39.9° Celcius )
WATER NEEDS: Average
OTHER FEATURES: Edible Fruit, Fall Colour
HEIGHT AT TIME OF SHIPPING: 7 gallon 5-7 feet, 10 gallon 6-8 feet. These sizes are approximate and may vary slightly year to year or even depending on the time of year. Height is that of the tree itself and does not include the height of the container."
I thought I would piggyback on this pre-existing thread about Golden Spice Pears, my apologies for the necrobump. My sister has purchased a Golden Spice pear tree and I have a few questions about this variety if any members are familiar with it. Is this variety any good as a fresh eating pear?
From what little I’ve read about it so far it sounds more like a canning pear than a quality fresh eating variety. On the bright side it should be highly fireblight resistant as a Pyrus ussuriensis x Pyrus communis cross. I don’t know the rootstock it is grafted on, but I suspect that it might be Pyrus ussuriensis. My sister intends to plant this tree on a back section of my property near where she has a trailer.
I don’t mind that it doesn’t have a dwarfing rootstock as this tree will likely only receive sporadic watering when my sister is not there to water it. Having a vigorous rootstock should be an aid in helping it survive without a regular watering schedule. It will be located near another pear tree that I do not want to spread fireblight to. The other tree I’m worried about is a century old Bartlett that I do not want to see infected by a new neighbour that is a fireblight magnet.
She didn’t consult me about this variety before she purchased it or I might have advised against it because of its reputed poor eating qualities. The price was right, so I guess it was still a good purchase, but I’d like to be able to add or change varieties on this tree she bought.
My question is, can good European pear varieties that are fireblight resistant such as the Harrow series pears be grafted onto this Golden Spice pyrus ussuriensis cross? Is there going to be grafting compatibility issues with Euro varieties?
I’ve grafted Dana’s Hovey, Bosc, Flemish Beauty, White Doyenne, Warden Seckel, Clark’s Little Yellow Pear, a Harrow, Pennsylvania Wonder, Ure (removed) and one or two others with no issues. I did remove a branch of something this spring because it looked blighty to me, but that branch was not GS. Some of these have been bearing for years, and some have been pretty shy, but they’ve all grown nicely.
The pear itself is pretty edible, but always firm, somewhat gritty. Fedco says it’s best as a perry source. I like them poached. It’s flavorful with spice notes, very enjoyable, in my mind, but no gourmet treat.
Thank you for that info. That was exactly what I was wanting to know. 
