Orcas
Horticulturalist Joe Long discovered this tree growing on his property on Orcas Island, WA and took it to the Mt. Vernon station for evaluation in it has become a regional favorite. The fruit is large, flavorful, and yellow with a carmine blush when perfectly ripe. The texture is smooth, slick and features very few grit cells. Orcas is scab resistant. The tree has a vigorous, spreading habit and bears prolifically every year. The pears are great for canning, drying or eating fresh; they mature in early September. Since the tree is a late bloomer (even though it’s an early ripener), it’s great to match as a pollinizer with a later-ripening keeper variety like Bosc or Seckel.
Spaulding
If you like the crunchy, juicy, sweetness of an Asian pear and the mellow complex flavor of a European pear, you will love Spalding. A healthy, vigorous tree produces loads of medium size, round, light green fruit in early September. Originally from the South, it thrives in the Pacific Northwest – and even gardeners into Florida grow it!
Winter Banana Apple
Larry Crum has grafted the apple variety Winter Banana onto this pear tree. Winter Banana has been thought to be the only apple variety that can be successfully grafted onto a pear. It is working and the grafts are growing as of 2026 and we will see if they continue to grow. The Winter Banana apple tree originated on the David Flory farm in Indiana, around 1876. The Winter Banana apple variety was later introduced by the Greening Brothers Nursery of Monroe, Michigan in 1890. The fruit is large, clear pale yellow, waxy finish, one side usually blushed with a delicate pink. The flesh of Winter Banana apples is moderately firm, a little coarse, tender, mild, subacid, characteristically aromatic. Better eating than cooking. Widely grown in mild winter areas on the West Coast. This is an apple that can certainly be called the “Fairest of the fair”, the sweet and lovely Winter Banana. With its smooth, waxy, pale yellow skin and pinkish-red blush, the Winter Banana is an extremely attractive apple as well as a beneficial addition to the home orchard. Winter Banana is a diploid, self-fertile apple, meaning that it not only pollinates itself, but also serves as a very effective pollinizer for other apple trees. Very few apples are self-fertile like Winter Banana and so require pollen from other apple varieties for proper cross-pollination and successful fruit production. It is a highly aromatic apple with a pleasant, perfumed aroma that some people discern as banana.
