Silver Creek Nursery Ltd.

Bartlett Pear Bareroot

History: Bartlett pear, better known as William's Bon Chretien (translated from French as William's Good Christian) or William's pear in Europe, has a long history with unknown origins. What we do know is that in 1483 King Louis XI summoned holy man Francis of Paola to his deathbed and Francis offered the king a pear seed from his birthplace of Calabria in Italy. The name 'Good Christian' was given to the pear as a result. In 1799, this variety was brought to Roxbury, Massachusetts where it was planted and eventually renamed 'Bartlett' by Enoch Bartlett who was unaware of its origins. The mistake was not realized until 1828, by which time "Bartlett" pears were already popular in North America and the mistake could not be undone.

Why We Grow It: Bartlett is the most commonly grown pear in North America and with good reason. Not only is it productive and easy to grow, but it produces large yellow fruit with a delectable flavour. 

    Note: We graft our Dwarf Bartletts with an Old Home interstem to maintain compatibility between Province Quince rootstock and Bartlett.

        $56.50

        Rootstock
        Size

        4 low in stock

        Fruit Traits:

        Recommended Use: Canning, fresh eating

        Fruit Size: Medium

        Storage: Keeps until mid-September when stored in cool, humid conditions and until October when stored in cold storage

        Harvest: September - Early

        Perry Class (if applicable):

        Tree Traits:

        Canadian Hardiness Zone: 5

        Soil Preferance: Sandy loam, loam, clay loam. Prefers average to moist conditions with well-drained soils, avoid planting anywhere that floods for more than two weeks in the spring.

        Flowering Time: Middle

        Bloom Colour: White

        Pollination Requirements: Partially self-pollinating, this variety will produce some fruit without a pear of a different variety but will produce more and better fruit if one is present. This variety is incompatible with Seckel.

        Sun/Shade Requirements: Full sun (approx. 8-10 hours of sun daily)

        General Growth Habit: Moderately vigorous and very hardy, spreading growth habit, has good crops. Susceptible to scab, mildew, fireblight, pear blister mite, and coddling moth but tolerant of stony pit.

        Overall Disease Resistance Rating*:

        *this rating is combined with our experience growing in our test orchards combined with already available information on the cultivar.

        Shipping: Every year we ship thousands of plants across Canada. We carefully bag roots in damp sawdust, then box them and send them out via courier. CLICK HERE to see our shipping policy.

        Pick-up: We also have thousands of trees picked up from our nursery each year. The pick-up options is free, though you must wait until you have been emailed a confirmation that your order is ready to pick up, which will have further information such as hours, locations, etc.

        Our grafted fruit trees are graded into two categories, and the size includes the rootstock:

        • 50-80cm grade: Smaller trees that may have some minor branching, this grade is like a "b-grade" size tree according to industry standards. This size may include trees that are over 1m but have some scarring or mild crookedness.
        • 1m+ grade: Trees that are over 1m tall, some may have no branches and others may have light feathering or a few established branches 

        Please keep in mind, bareroot trees appear small if you are unfamiliar with them. Size can vary year to year due to weather conditions and every single variety has a unique amount of vigour (some varieties naturally are smaller and some bigger, much like humans -and when you propagate hundreds of varieties, there certainly is variation). While we remain competitive in our plant size, it's also worth noting we don't use synthetic chemicals to push vegetative growth. Therefore you may find some conventional nursery stock larger in comparison. 


        Why plant small? It's best to transplant a tree when it's young so it can establish its roots before it has a lot of vegetative growth. This is much less stressful on it and after a few years bareroot trees tend to catch up and even surpass larger potted trees planted at the same time.

        Orders that are cancelled last minute due to size (being "too small"), will still incur the applicable cancellation fees if the trees are true to our grading standards as per the agreement of sale when the order was placed.

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