Just Google “buy Harrow Sweet pear in Canada”. I did, and the first nursery that came up was Nutcracker in Quebec. There may be others, I didn’t check
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Thank you @Piblarg will be happy about that. I’m not sure a good nursery from a bad one in Canada. Canada may not even allow bad nurseries to operate there but in the USA we have many you would not want to go to!
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Since I am also trying to buy either/both a Harrow Sweet, Harrow Delight I searched for stores in Canada and found these that sells at least one of the two, the Harrow Sweet seems easier to find than the Harrow Delight. Most will ship bare root in Canada:
nutcrackernursery (add the .com to most of these names)
jardinjasmin (local in montreal)
vergerpepiniere
silvercreeknursery (add .ca)
pepiniereancestrale
krausnurseries (no stock for 2023 though)
uppercanadagrowers (add .ca)
pepio (add the .org)
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Thanks, this was the link I originally found that made me interested in the Harrow varieties. I also found this link with list of pear testing for fire blight and other disease resistance:
NCGR-Corvallis: Pyrus Catalog (usda.gov)
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We do have one bad nursery in Canada, but it is not Nutcracker. I would describe them as middle of the pack. Best as I can tell Marc sells some home raised trees and many that he has purchased. Some of the “bareroot” trees he sells have thick calipers and significant height. This has made shipping costs higher than I would like. It also makes it difficult to package them well for long deliveries. That being said, every tree he has sent me has survived it’s first winter.
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Thanks to @mayhaw9999 I have gotten to enjoy Harrow Sweet this year. My tree is only a couple years old and not bearing yet. I was surprised by how juicy it was! Great texture and flavor. I’m very happy to have this tree in the orchard.
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one of the best things I’ve eaten that I planted as a tree and (eventually w/ my help for it of hand pollination) I got to taste a perfect Harrow Sweet that this one ripened after 10-days, on a kitchen counter:
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I would also describe them as middle of the pack. Not my top choice but if they were the only nursery that carried something I really wanted, I’d order from them again.
I want a Harrow Sweet so I’ll keep an eye on if they bring it back in stock.
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Good to hear as I have not used them before.
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Do either of you have a favorite? I have been using whiffletree as it is close but am looking to expand a bit.
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The production and size will get even better from here! They are fairly consistent as well. Many pears can have a dramatically different taste from one year to the next but harrow sweet remains mostly the same every year.
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My favourite nursery is the one that has the variety I want at a price I am willing to pay and whom I trust to deliver a live tree. There are definitely nuanced differences between our Canadian nurseries, but for the most part they do a good job of describing that themselves. When we say Nutcracker is middle of the road, that is an endorsement to buy there. There is nothing wrong with average. If you are close to WT and can buy trees with no shipping charges that is where you should buy them. You only need to go somewhere else if you are looking for a variety WT does not have.
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No doubt harrow sweet is now a widely grown variety. @alan was a long term promoter of this variety. He encouraged me to grow it many years ago.
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This is a pear many people are planting more of this year. I’m interested to know what everyone planting them will say in a few more years. I’ve always thought harrow delight and harrow sweet should be more widely grown than they are. Times are changing people grow more pears all the time.
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I have one from Cummins on OHxF87 coming today. This site definitely put it on my radar.
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For me it’s all about the fridge. You can only have so many trees if they need a fridge to help ripen. Otherwise my orchard would be nothing but Comice variants and classics. For taste I still consider the classics to be the best.
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Comice is a great tasting pear. I love finding them in the store and when the mood hits and they are on sale I buy them online. I am just afraid to try growing it in my orchard. I think it would be a FB mess and I think it may not do well here. I would rather not waste the space in my orchard and the heartache of not getting the pears I want from the tree.
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I have a Harrow sweet pair coming from Grandpa’s orchard. Also have a seckel pear coming. And the pear tree I bought from @Barkslip . That makes 8 pear trees now. It’s a joke in my family that I have a pear tree buying problem. Excited for the Harrow sweet in a few years!
You could always graft a few limbs of them. I’ve not had any problems with mine and I have several.