The closer your climate to the Kazakstan region in Asia…the more feral apples you’re likely to come across. Seedling apples do exist in the fence/hedges here, but callery pear seedlings are 100 to 1 more common!
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I visited a roadside callery pear tree yesterday. I’ve watched it for a couple of years because it has the prettiest showiest flame red fall leaves of any callery pear I’ve ever seen… and I’ve seen at least a million over the years. Most callery pear trees turn a dark green/brown/red color in fall. Some turn more of a yellow/orange/red. This tree is dramatically different with tints of orange and pink and flame red leaves. There is another tree less than 10 feet away that is typical muddy red/brown. It is an amazing contrast.
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Now if it has big fruit… That’s a real winner sans the upcoming illegal invasive aspects…
An area on I65 near Huntsville, AL with at least 1000 callery pears growing.
I HATE callery trees. They are so invasive. They have taken over here in every vacant piece of land and in people’s yards as well.
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As do most of us, but I can still admire one that is as pretty as the above picture.
They are pretty in the spring and fall.
Yes i think this is a great idea for fruit hunting and exploring.
Here is an example of pawpaws near Univ of Penn.
which led this person to find these in a park.
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Yup. Bad trees. Want about 25 along my ditch:) You know where Im going with this… hehe
I’d suggest grafting a limb to another tree…see if the red fall color is till the same.
Then, perhaps, ship some scions to some other part of the country.
If the red is consistent, you have a ‘winner’ good for any place that hasn’t made callery illegal.
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This sort of counts as “roadside”… a local sidewalk planter that has what I thought was a seedling peach (but maybe is a nectarine?). I suspect it’s a volunteer/seedling because when I first spotted it last year, I noticed it was growing from the very corner of a planter filled with ornamental stuff. I saw today that it has some fruit on it, and they look shiny rather than fuzzy:
Most of the other sidewalk planters on this block just have ornamental stuff, and this one is near the middle of the block that gets closed every Sunday to be a farmers market. My theory is someone ate the fruit at the market and threw the pit in a planter. I’m wondering if the person who tends the planters has noticed it and sprayed it, because it’s shockingly free of PLC:
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I agree that it looks like a volunteer tree rather than an intentional planting. It appears to be right next to a building which means there could be an overhang which might keep a lot of the rain off of it. If that’s the case, that would prevent a lot of the spread of peach leaf curl. Its resistance level would need to be evaluated out in the open. Definitely worth keeping an eye on though.
Given how short and bushy it is I would suspect someone chopped it down at some point.
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The planters were moved back from the open place next to the road to that spot against the wall in the middle of winter. At first I thought they had simply been removed, but was glad to see they were just moved (the sidewalk was re-paved). It is fairly protected in the new location, though, you’re right, and I’m not sure exactly when it was moved. Some time after September and before January. You can see from the first photo in my earlier post, the wall in the background is the wall that the planter was moved against:
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on rte 34, just west of alsea Oregon, there’s a lil abandoned church on the north side of the road. above it is a very old small cemetery. in the roadway between the two and stretching along the north side of 34 along the church, are dozens of good small pink apples. the trees aren’t tall and are not maintained at all. the apples I collected in 2017-2019, and again in 2021/22 were very good, crunchy and tart but not cider tart. no tannin flavors.
if anyone is in that area you might look if you’re driving along the river or to the coast. I don’t live there anymore (I lived in a cabin in the siuslaw, across from alsea river, about a mile into the woods from the river bend just past these trees) but I may be down there this summer to check again. if I recall I picked from some in August and others into November.
edit to add: Missouri bend on that river has good crawdad and fishing spots, and there’s blackberry and other old abandoned orchard trees right all along that river area.
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A couple years ago I grafted scion of orient pear on a small callery seedling on the side of the road here on my place.
I pretty much forgot about it… then noticed it this week… it was all grown up… had lots of other small saplings, bush, brush, vines trying to smother it out.
I got in there with my loppers and hand pruner and rescued it…
I pruned it a bit once I had it free of all that growth… it will be getting much more sun now.
I was somewhat amazed that it turned out to be a decent shaped little pear tree.
My other pear trees in my orchard are about 70 yards away… is that too far for pear pollination ?
If so… i will graft some bell scion to it.
And… while clearing out the brush… about 10 ft away… found this…
A very nice little persimmon… no fruit on it yet… i will check the blossoms next spring to see if it is male or female.
TNHunter
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Bees pollinate pears and will happily carry pollen 1/2 mile from one tree to the next. 70 yards is no concern at all.
Looks like a few more persimmon trees in the background of that pic.
Don’t stand still, a persimmon is likely to germinate under your feet and knock you on your American can. 
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This local street right-of-way (on public school property) has been planted entirely with a non-fruiting/ornamental pear of some sort, but mostly they are all struggling badly. This one is close to dying, but the rootstock has grown some shoots large enough to fruit for the first time. Any idea when these should be picked? They are still rock hard now.
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I would just take one periodically and cut it open to see if the seeds are darkening.
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