Unrequited Love

September 18, 2026

Nancy announced that I have unrequited love for the pear tree in the orchard. Truth is, I didn’t know what unrequited meant until she explained the word. Unrequited may be too strong a word; we do get some love back. In 2024 we got 24 pears! I am devoted to this tree because of the sweet, somewhat intense, rich and buttery pears we enjoy!

Harrow Delight is the variety. I have never seen then in the store or in the market. Harrow Delight was developed by a disease-resistant breeding program that started in 1962 at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Research Centre at Ontario, Canada. It’s a mix of Bartlett and Purdue 80-51 (Old Home x Early Sweet).

Such good pears but such an ugly tree. It would not be my advice to plant a European pear front and center in your garden, as I mistakenly did. They are not pretty. Very upright branches with bland brownish-green foliage. As the season wears on that foliage is riddled with Pacific Coast Pear Rust.

There are other problems. The tree has both scab and cankers. As a bonus, we watch for either or all: sawfly, winter moth, or other leafroller larvae. They all like to swallow up leaves and flowers. Then there is the pollination challenge. We have plenty of bees and wasps but there are no pear trees nearby. I have to hand pollinate so I trot off to another orchard and bring back flowers from a pear that blooms about the same time (could be a Bosc, Bartlett, Anjou, or Harvest Queen). Recently we grafted a Seckel pear scion onto the Harrow; we are hoping for an overlap in flowering. In the summer, we install an aluminum skirt around the trunk to help keep the rats and squirrels at bay.

After pollination, we wait. Soon we see many little bell-shaped fruits. Then in June we watch half of them drop! This is called “June drop” and our pear tree really digs June drop. There goes another! Plop. Could be the tree doesn’t have the energy to ripen as many pears that originally formed or could be incomplete pollination or insect damaged fruits. We are usually down to half of the original crop by the end of July. It’s a small tree but, for a pear, an average of 10 pears is atrocious.

The final hurdle is timing of harvest. Harrow Delight is an early pear so we are harvesting the fruit in early August. Pears ripen from the inside out so the timing is more tricky than an apple. Spin the dial or trust your gut. Pears are often best if you harvest them when maturing has begun but the pear is not fully ripe. Most European pears soften properly by spending some time in the refrigerator (it depends on how long you want to store them).

If you get it right you should sit down with no distractions (imagine that). Go slowly and savor each bite. You will be very delighted. But, I will admit, each year I wonder if the love I put in is worth the love I get back.

Ruth

Resources:

Top Worked Pears – Tree #8, 2024
NW Fruit (Western Washington Fruit Research Foundation)
https://nwfruit.org/top-worked-pears-tree-8/

Orange Pippin Fruit Trees
Harrow Delight pear trees, June, 2026
https://www.orangepippintrees.com/trees/pear-trees/harrow-delight#full-description

Cummins Nursery, New York
https://www.cumminsnursery.com/buy-trees/product-detail.php?type=tree&id=21547

Natter’s Notes – Pear Trees: Rust, times 2
Jean R. Natter, OSU Master Gardener
OSU Extension Service Metro-area Master Gardener Newsletter, June 1, 2016
https://blogs.oregonstate.edu/mgmetro/2018/06/01/pear-trees-rust-times-2/

Pear Harvest
Cindy Kahn
WSU Tree Fruit Comprehensive Tree Fruit Site, June 12, 2015
https://treefruit.wsu.edu/web-article/pear-harvest/