Archive for category: Fruit

*All of these fruit trees are grown on semi-dwarf rootstock in order to accommodate most home orchards.*

European Pears

Bartlett

Perhaps the most widely grown European pear tree in history and cultivated in America since the early 1800s. Classic bell shaped golden yellow fruit sometimes flushed red. Thin skinned, with creamy white flesh that is sweet and buttery. A multi-purpose pear grown for fresh eating, cooking, dessert, baking or juice. Ripens in September. Pollinate with any other European Pear. Prone to scab.  A WSU Mt Vernon recommended variety.

Bosc

A distinctive golden-brown pear with a long neck. Famous for its firm, crunchy, aromatic flesh and sweet, spicy flavor. The firm flesh makes it a great baking pear, but it is also delicious fresh. A very good keeper. Bosc is best picked in late September/early October and stored for several weeks in a cool, dry location. It is then brought into warmth for ripening. Can last up to 6 months in storage. Needs a different European pear variety for a pollinizer. A WSU Mt Vernon recommended variety.

Early Gold

This hardy pear is hard to beat if you’re looking for tasty fruit; sweet and crisp, it is great for eating and holds up well in desserts, baked goods, and when canned. It ripens in early August. And if green/gold fruit isn’t tempting enough, it’s also a great ornamental tree with white flowers in spring and leaves that turn gold to purple in autumn.

Maxie

Is a cross between Max Red Bartlett European and Nijisseki Asian pears, giving us the best of both worlds. Red and yellow in color this fruit is flavorful; sweet, crisp, juicy, and wonderfully aromatic- it is great for fresh eating! This tree blooms in early April and ripens in mid-September. It is also disease resistant.

Orcas

The original tree was found on Orcas Island. Large, beautiful, perfectly pear-shaped yellow fruit, with a red blush. Sweet and juicy, with smooth, buttery flesh. Good for fresh eating, or for canning and drying. Reliable and productive. Disease resistant. Ripens in September. Needs a different European pear variety for a pollinizer. A WSU Mt Vernon recommended variety.

Red Bartlett- Discovered in 1938, this was a sport of Bartlett with unique red skin. Starting crunchy and tart and dark red when under-ripe, this pear finishes bright red, super sweet and juicy when fully ripened. Fruit is ready for harvest early in season. Harvest when mature, but not fully ripe, for best texture. Somewhat disease-resistant.

Rescue

Large, sweet, fruit with mild flavor, has orange-yellow skin. Rescue is a good producer with fruit that ripens in late August. It is great for eating fresh as well as for drying. Well adapted for the Pacific Northwest, it is a vigorous, productive, and reliable variety.

Ubileen

An early ripening pear that has rated high in taste tests. Large yellow pears with a pretty red blush. Delicious eaten fresh with sweet, smooth, buttery flesh. Vigorous and productive. Disease resistant. Ripens in August. Pollinate with a different European pear variety. A WSU Mt. Vernon recommended variety.

Asian Pears

Chojuro

This tree produces medium, round, brown skinned fruit that is mildly sweet & spicy with texture that is firm & crisp. Fruits ripen in mid-August. The Chojuro tree has large, waxy, dark green, foliage that turns a gorgeous red/orange in the fall.

Hosui

Introduced in the 1970s form Japan, this Asian pear is tangy with more acidity than most pears. The fruit is sweet like a European pear, but crisp like an apple. The fruit is large with a gold skin and juicy flesh. Excellent for fresh eating or baking. Ripens in late August. Self-pollinating, but will yield more with a separate pollinator such as ‘Shinseiki’.

Nijisseiki

This is a dessert cultivar bearing medium to large yellow fruits with smooth skin. The white flesh is crisp and mildly sweet. Self-fruitful but better with another variety.

Shinseiki

A beautiful rounded pear with showy yellow skin. Sweet white flesh is crisp and very juicy. Very vigorous and productive.  Good disease resistance. Stores very well. Ripens in early to mid-August. Needs a different Asian pear variety as a pollinizer. A WSU Mt Vernon recommended variety.

Espalier European Pears & 4 way Grafted

4 Way Asian Pear – Chojuro, Nijiseiki, Shinseiki, Shinko, Kosui

Espalier European Pear- Bartlett, Red Bartlett, Bosc

Quince ‘Smyra’

Cydonia oblonga is an attractive small tree with large cup-shaped pink and white flowers that yield generous crops of large yellow sweetly aromatic fruit with a flavor reminiscent of pineapple.  Used widely for preserves and pectin.  Self fertile; ripens in late fall; deserves to be more widely grown.

Need to know which trees pollinize which? Check out these Pollination Charts from Biringer Nursery.

We kick off spring with a big batch of bare-root small fruits and edibles. Stop in soon to embellish your food garden!

Crimson Night Everbearing Raspberry

This variety offers prolific, flavorful dark red-purple berries and great disease resistance. Introduced by Cornell University in 2012, Crimson Night is very ornamental, with dark purple canes – try it in a container! It will produce two heavy crops of berries. New canes (Primocanes) will produce berries that ripen in late summer through early fall. Don’t cut back previous years canes (Floricanes) – they will produce berries that ripen in mid-summer. Self-pollinating.

Honey Queen Everbearing Raspberry

Honey Queen lives up to its name with its deliciously sweet honey flavor packed into beautiful yellow, soft, and medium-sized berries perfect for picking and eating in the summer. It was developed in Rocky Mountain House by Robert Erskine and is very winter hardy. Canes are yellowish, floricane, arched and moderately spiny – and need trellising. Self-pollinating.

Nova Elderberry

Grow an edible landscape with this easy-care shrub. Wide clusters of creamy white flowers appear in spring. If left on the bush, the flowers develop into bountiful bunches of tender, deep purple berries used in jams, jellies, pies, and wines. Elderberry syrup is said to stimulate the immune system. Native to North America and great for attracting wildlife. Bees and hummingbirds will drink the flower nectar, and a variety of birds will eat the berries. Fruit set will be best if cross pollinated by another Sambucus canadensis variety such as ‘York’.

York Elderberry

Enjoy lots of juicy berries on this manageable 6’-8’ tall shrub. In early summer, the vigorous plants are covered with gorgeous tiny white flowers that produce large clusters of small purple-black berries in late summer. The nutritious berries have high anthocyanin content and are excellent made into jams, jellies, juices, and cordials. Fruit set will be best if cross pollinated by another Sambucus canadensis variety such as ‘Nova’. Zones 3-8.

Crandall Black Currant

The Crandall black currant is the most ornamental and sweetest of all currant varieties. Grown for beauty and fruit, the Crandall’s clove-scented, trumpet-shaped flowers bloom in spring. Enjoy fruit fresh or use in your favorite recipes. Ripens mid-summer. Very fast growing and attracts butterflies.  Self pollinating but better with another variety (such as Pink Champagne!).

Pink Champagne Currant

Medium-sized currants are a fascinating translucent pink and have a wonderful flavor that is less tart than red currants and more delicate than black currants! These delicious fruits ripen in late September and are perfect for fresh eating, baking, jellies, and preserves. Grow 3 to 5 feet tall and are resistant to mildew and rust. Self-pollinating but better with another variety (such as Crandall!).

Crimson Cherry Rhubarb

One of the best flavored rhubarb varieties on the market, Crimson Red Rhubarb’s stalks have that perfect balance of sweetness and tartness. The plants product ample yields of pleasingly plump, crimson stalks that add excellent flavor and color to pies, cobblers, preserves and other recipes. Rhubarb is a perennial vegetable that performs best when planted in full sun to partial shade and in well-drained soil. Stalks should not be harvested the first season after planting. 

Mary Washington Asparagus

This variety offers buttery and robust flavor, thick straight stalks, and later emerging fern-like foliage.

Sweet Purple Asparagus

In addition to the fun coloration, the flavor is said to be distinctly sweeter than green asparagus. This variety is less prone to developing fibrous strings and woody stalks.

Horseradish

Add the peppery leaves to soups and salads for an invigorating flavor or wait to harvest the roots in the fall. Plant 6” deep. Plants can spread; consider growing in a large pot or barrel.

*All of these fruit trees are grown on semi-dwarf rootstock in order to accommodate most home orchards, unless otherwise noted.*

Frost Peach

The best peach for Northwest gardens. Red blushed over yellow peaches are great fresh or for canning. A freestone variety that produces very heavily. The tree is very productive and vigorous. Thinning the tree or the fruit will produce larger, better quality peaches. The tree is self-fertile and has pretty pink flowers in late winter. Plant in full sun with good drainage. Resistant to peach leaf curl, especially as the tree becomes more established.

Galaxy Peach (dwarf)

These donut shaped peaches have intense, sweet flavor, white flesh and a semi-cling pit which have been popular in China for centuries. Can produce up to 50lbs of fruit a year once mature! These self-fertile trees are on a dwarf root stock, making them great for home orchards and easy picking. Best in full sun with good drainage.

Puget Gold Apricot

This is inarguably the most consistent fruit producing apricot variety. Produces medium size fruit with firm flesh that is delectably sweet. Ripens in mid-August and is self-fertile! This tree naturally protects its delicate blossoms from harsh conditions by blooming late.

Harglow Apricot

This variety has proven itself in our Northwest climate. It is late blooming and early ripening (August) and produces a medium to large apricot that is deep orange with a delightful blush of red. It is a flavorful fruit, sweet and firm. Harglow is self-fertile and is also resistant to perennial canker, brown rot, and resists cracking!

Hardy Red Nectarine

A new promising variety for the Northwest. Fruit is red skinned with golden blush. The very sweet, yellow flesh that ripens in mid-August. Hardy Red is a freestone nectarine and has excellent flavor.

Combos:

These fruit trees have several different kinds of fruit grafted to one root stock:

Fruit Cocktail (4-way Combo): Frost Peach, Puget Gold Apricot, Hardy Red Nectarine, Italian Prune and Lapin or Stella Cherry

**All our fruiting cherries are grown on dwarf rootstock to make them easier for bird netting and access to the fruit. Sour cherries (Prunus cerasus) are said to be self-fertile, but sweet cherries (Prunus avium) need a second sweet variety as a pollinator. Since sour and sweet are different species they do not pollinate each other.**

Sweet Cherries:

Angela

Has large, sweet, black fruit that resists cracking and disease. Angela ripens like Bing in mid-season. A self-pollinating tree but will perform better with another pollinator.

Bing

The most popular sweet cherry on the American market, Bing cherries produce large, dark smooth skinned fruit in mid-June to early July. The fruit is firm and extremely juicy and very sweet. Great for fresh eating, baking or preserves. One tree can be a heavy producer, with mature specimens producing 50-100 lbs of fruit in one year. The Bing Cherry will need a pollinator, such as Lapin or Sam, to produce fruit. A WSU Mt. Vernon recommended variety.

Lapin

An outstanding sweet dark cherry for Northwest gardens. The cherries are very large and crack resistant. The fruit is sweet and juicy, making it perfect for fresh eating or baking. The tree is disease resistant and very productive. An excellent substitute for Bing, which can crack in Western Washington. Self-fertile. Ripens in summer.  A WSU Mt. Vernon recommended variety.

Rainier

An outstanding sweet cherry tree that produces delicious, large, fruit that are yellow with pink blush. Ripens before Bing, and larger than Royal Ann. This tree is a good pollinizer and is an easy to grow, low maintenance variety.

Sam

Considered a ‘black sweet’ cherry the fruit is dark red in color. Its flavor is similar to ‘Bing’ but a little tarter. Heavy producer and hardy to negative 20 degrees, it makes a great choice for home orchards. An excellent choice for the Pacific Northwest because of its resistance to cracking. Bing is a recommended pollinizer.

Vandalay

A large, sweet black cherry well suited to Northwest gardens. Very deep, wine-colored black cherries have firm red flesh and excellent flavor. Great eaten fresh. The cherries are crack-resistant and the tree is very productive. A disease resistant variety. Ripens in summer. Self-fertile. A WSU Mt. Vernon recommended variety.

Sweet Cherry 4-way Dwarf Combo

(4 of these 5 varieties grafted together) Bing, Rainier, Lapin, Glacier, Van, Royal Ann

Sour/Pie Cherries:

Montmorency

This variety has been cultivated in this country since the early 20^th century. It is the most popular sour cherry in America. It produces a large, light red fruit for baking, drying and juicing.

Morello

This old variant fruit has deep crimson flesh that is tart and aromatic. The fruit’s wine-red juice is abundant and perfect for cooking and pie making. Ripens in August.

Surefire

Is so highly regarded it is considered the “first sour cherry.” This bright red fruit has high sugar content making it perfect for eating fresh or for making pies. Late blooming, late-flowering, crack resistant.

Need to know which trees pollinize which? Check out these Pollination Charts from Biringer Nursery.