Hi all, I have ordered some trees to be delivered this autumn. The other half
said we have far too many apple, pear, plum, cherry, peach, fig, chestnut, walnut and hazel already, so she wanted something different, O.K., I decided on mulberry, medlar and the sorbus x pyrus hybrid shipova pear.

Just out of curiosity, has anyone else grown a Shipova, and what are your experiences of this tree.

"Tim Perry" wrote

Hi all, I have ordered some trees to be delivered this autumn. The
other half
said we have far too many apple, pear, plum, cherry, peach, fig,
chestnut, walnut and hazel already, so she wanted something different,
O.K., I decided on mulberry, medlar and the sorbus x pyrus hybrid
shipova pear.

Just out of curiosity, has anyone else grown a Shipova, and what are
your experiences of this tree.


What no little Mirabelles? (make amazing jam)
No Greengage either. (much nicer to eat than plums)

--
Regards
Bob Hobden

"Bob Hobden" wrote in message
...

"Tim Perry" wrote

Hi all, I have ordered some trees to be delivered this autumn. The
other half
said we have far too many apple, pear, plum, cherry, peach, fig,
chestnut, walnut and hazel already, so she wanted something different,
O.K., I decided on mulberry, medlar and the sorbus x pyrus hybrid
shipova pear.

Just out of curiosity, has anyone else grown a Shipova, and what are
your experiences of this tree.


What no little Mirabelles? (make amazing jam)
No Greengage either. (much nicer to eat than plums)

And he'll have to wait a long time for mulberries ...

Mary

Yes, Mary, you are right about having to wait a long time for the Mulberries to come into full crop.
Bob, you are also right about the gages, although I chose Oullins Golden Gage as a preference.
As you might have guessed, I just enjoy growing trees, and have planted hundreds since I bought this farm.

I am also growing from seed;-

Pawpaw, Asimina triloba.
Loquats, Eriobotrya japonica.
Pitanga, otherwise known as Surniam Cherry.

I am also considering Persimmons, american not oriental, Asian Pear and
Pecans.

From this you will see that time is not a consideration, when I die my son will take over, and then his son in turn.
In farming you tend to work like there's no tomorrow, plan like you'll live forever.

Not as long as you have to wait for walnuts. I bought about a 3rd year mulberry tree, and within about 4 years I was getting enough to do a bit with them, even make a couple of little pots of jam. The main problem is picking the fruit, they tend to be inside the leaf canopy, high up, and you have to compete with wasps.

You are clearly in a fairly warm corner of the country if you think you can get something off a loquat tree. I was in Sardinia earlier this year and a lot of their loquat trees had lost their fruit to the weather this year.

Have you considered feijoas?

You'll have no trouble with asian pear, I've got one of those and when it decides to fruit they are delicious (lost the pear crop to a late frost this year), albeit small.

Cornus kousa is one of the most delicious things in my garden, and you can grow that in the ornamental area of your garden.

I read this about pecan: "It is not really a practical proposition for the backyards of temperate food gardeners, unless you are a plant experimenter with a very big lot and who likes to try to push the boundaries." They are certainly hardy enough, but seem to be cultivated in places like Georgia and Texas which have long hot summers, so I wonder whether you'll get worthwhile fruit off a very large spreading tree.

What about saskatoons/juneberries? They are delicious. Need a moist soil for them to do well. The ones which are improved for their flowering potential are not always good for eating though. I have an Amelanchier alnifolia which is improved for ornamental reasons, and the berries are disappointing.

I read this about pitanga. "The Surinam cherry is adapted to tropical and subtropical regions. In the Philippines, it thrives from sea-level to 3,300 ft (1,000 m); in Guatemala, up to 6,000 ft (1,800 m). Young plants are damaged by temperatures below 28º F (-2.22º C), but well-established plants have suffered only superficial injury at 22º F (-5.56º C). The plant revels in full sun." "The first Surinam cherry was introduced into coastal Israel in 1922 and aroused considerable interest because it produced fruit in May when other fruits are scarce, and it requires so little care; but over 10 years of observation, the yields recorded were disappointingly small." So maybe you can keep it alive in a mild part of the country if you protect it when young, but you aren't going to get much fruit off it.

If you really are in a supermild corner of the country, you could probably grow avocado. I think some people have got them to fruit in S Devon.

As a quince grower, I've always been intrigued by pseudocydonia sinensis, which is said to be edible raw.

Hi, Yes I know that I am taking a big gamble with many of these, but we are just 'having a go' to try and get greater variety.

The mulberry is pot grown, a cultivar called Capsrum, and is supposed to fruit in 2-3 years, we shall see how true that turns out to be. As it is advised to plant 2 varieties, my second choice is Illinois Everbearing.

Norfolk is not so mild. I recall seeing a Loquat in fruit in my grandmother's garden in Epsom, Surrey.

Had not thought of Feijoas, will have to look into that, and the same goes for Cornus Kousa, but I'm afraid the Avacado pear cannot manage outside the greenhouse.

I chose the Pecan var Carison, a true northern variety from Canada. Size is not a problem, but it does tend to crop bi-annually I'm told.

Saskatoons sound interesting, particularly the var Thiessen grown commercially in Canada.

My Pitangas are in pots outside. At the moment they seem to be O.K., but not growing as fast as they are supposed to. Seeded in late spring, they are now about 1 ft tall.

All my apples are from cuttings scrounged from friends and grafted onto wild crab stocks. Same thing with the pears, only they are on hawthorn stocks. Peaches grown from stone, and some have been grafted to carry my
plum trees. Cherries are grafted on suckers I found around a flowering Almond. Figs, Walnuts, Chestnuts, Hazels are all on their own roots.

Yes, I do like a bit of a challenge !! How can you discover you limits if you don't push the boundaries ?

Hello again, as you have had some experience with the Cornus genus, I was hoping that you could tell me how the Japanese Dogwood, Cornus kousa
compares with the Cornelian cherry, Cornus mas in terms of hardiness, how easy to grow, fruit size and weight of crop produced per plant, and also the flavour of course.

I will also try Quinces, when I can find a suitable donor of scions to graft on
whatever suitable happens to be handy at the time.

Bob, to answer your question, we have wild cherry/plums, rather
like a Shuma, they grow everywhere around here, along every
hedgerow, so I did not trouble to plant any. Most locals ignore
them, but we pick loads every year. I use them in much the same
way as you do to make sloe gin, only I prefer Polish spirit to gin.

Back to the Loquat issue, they are said to be hardy down to -15 C,
and the flowers to -7 C, so there should be more people growing
them successfully, but they are only partially self-fertile and would
benefit from another grown close by. Perhaps this is why so few
growers get fruit.

In article ,
Tim Perry writes:
| Bob Hobden;812896 Wrote:
|
| What no little Mirabelles? (make amazing jam)
| No Greengage either. (much nicer to eat than plums)
|
| Bob, to answer your question, we have wild cherry/plums, rather
| like a Shuma, they grow everywhere around here, along every
| hedgerow, so I did not trouble to plant any. Most locals ignore
| them, but we pick loads every year. I use them in much the same
| way as you do to make sloe gin, only I prefer Polish spirit to gin.

Mirabelles are not cherry-plums, still less are greengages. Both
are Prunus domestica; cherry-plums are P. cerasifera. And Bob's
remark about greengages doesn't apply to either.

| Back to the Loquat issue, they are said to be hardy down to -15 C,
| and the flowers to -7 C, so there should be more people growing
| them successfully, but they are only partially self-fertile and would
| benefit from another grown close by. Perhaps this is why so few
| growers get fruit.

They are said to be, but it's not that simple. They are very hardy,
but are often cut back by cold winds (even ones rather warmer than
-15 Celcius) and need a reasonable amount of heat and sun to flower
and fruit. I don't know the details of the latter.

You used to see the former around Cambridge very clearly, because
there were a fair number of them in the city that were truncated
every winter as they got above the garden walls. That doesn't
happen in the current very mild winters.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Tim Perry" wrote in message
...

Hi all, I have ordered some trees to be delivered this autumn. The
other half
said we have far too many apple, pear, plum, cherry, peach, fig,
chestnut, walnut and hazel already, so she wanted something different,
O.K., I decided on mulberry, medlar and the sorbus x pyrus hybrid
shipova pear.

Just out of curiosity, has anyone else grown a Shipova, and what are
your experiences of this tree.




--
Tim Perry

Hi Tim,

Sorry, can't answer your pear question as I haven't grown one, but we do get
a decent crop of flowers and fruit from our Loquat. In SE London on heavy
clay (but a fairly well-drained hilly site) it flowers in autumn, sets fruit
and holds it until spring, then generally gives up its crop around July
time.

Perry is the perfect name for a grower of pears :~) Perhaps you could
make some (perry, that is) when you get a crop. (Before you ask, I don't
have a recipe .. but someone here might).

Good luck.
Spider

Thanks Spider, I knew I'd seen then 'daan saaf' when I was a kid, I was sure I
didn't imagine it. Nan used to tell us they were poison 'cos she didn't want us
half inching them.

Blast, dunnow if they do grow up here in Narfik, but they got 2 choices.

You are on the ball with the surname, family originated from Somerset, and
used to make Perry, but that was back in the middle ages.

Shipova fruit, I am told, is plum sized, red, and has good flavour... we shall see.

Wow, all that fruit !
If I dress up as a fruit bat can I come for a visit

Anytime, C. F., but you did not mention your gender.

If you are a girl, you can wear whatever you like,

(just as long as 'her indoors' don't catch you),

If you're a bloke, I could use a hand with loads of hedges
that need trimming.