This is a Transparent Gage I budded onto a hedgerow damson in August 2009.
Despite some rabbit damage it is growing away nicely.
Below left shows the Pear, ‘Pitmaston Duchess’ with the leaves about to open. This was cleft grafted onto a hawthorn in March this year.
The right picture shows the Pear ‘Doyenne du Commice’ with the leaves fully open. This was rind grafted onto hawthorn in March this year.
As well as these successful grafts, many others have taken (mainly Pear, Quince and Medlar onto Hawthorn).
Some of the most exciting are in a woodland clearing on the Welsh/Shropshire border. Here there are many self set Hawthorn growing high up in very poor soil, some even through cracks in rocks. Obviously this is only the first stage in the trial.
The next stage is to observe and record the fruiting quality of these trees.
As well as continuing to graft onto mature trees already existing in the landscape, I will be carrying out trials in my new nursery site to see what varieties of Pear are compatible with Hawthorn. For this I will graft onto young trees grown from seed collected locally.
