North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Donna &/or Kieran" <holycow@cookeville.com>]

The Gardenweb discussion "Just say no to medlars" was quite amusing, and I 
note that no one was able to properly defend the fruit.  The trees yes, nice 
pretty little things with no apparent diseases.  I've seen and tasted them 
at Hector's place.  The fruit, little round lumps, you break or bite off the 
stem end after they have bletted and you squeeze a bit of spiced applesauce 
into your mouth, and throw the stony remainder away.  Persimmons taste 
better and provide a heck of a lot more food, easier to eat too given the 
usual cautions re ripeness.
   I appreciate the cautions re graft incompatibility, there were some 
apple trees in a nearby town on dwarfing rootstock that narrowed 
dramatically as you looked down near ground level.  This shouldn't be a 
problem given that pear would be the rootstock.  In fact I had been thinking 
that I would have the fun of a normally small tree grown huge on on pear 
rootstock, but I suppose I'll only get a big trunk and a weird looking small 
top.  (Ornamental, that's the word to use when a plant is abnormal looking.)
   I was relieved that Lon replied it was only one species of sorbus I 
should avoid.  Of the lot, the sorbus sounded most interesting.  I didn't 
realize we were talking about a relative to the rowan.  I'm a little puzzled 
that I never heard of whitebeam after living in England 3 years, and my 
Irish husband has never heard of them and doesn't recognize the photos on 
Google even though there is a Sorbus hibernica (meaning it's Irish).  So now 
that you all have whetted my appetite, please tell where in the world... 
no, rather where in the US can I get stock?  I've kind of been wondering if 
I could find a seed company that carries unusual trees, order and start some 
seeds, and then graft from the little seedlings onto my pears, which by that 
time ought to have grown to several feet tall and could take multiple 
grafts, thus giving me X pollination.
   So you all don't think that my grafts of sorbus onto pear won't shrivel 
up and die from delayed incompatibility in a few years?  (Counting your 
chickens before they hatch seems like a good way to head off a lot of 
useless bother in this case.)   Thanks, this is fun.   Mental grafting and 
growing is so easy, no bad weather, no cuts on my hands either.     Donna