Can you tell me more about the Shipova tree? Will it grow here in the Northwest, and is it suitable for a small garden?
Shipova is both a common name and a cultivated variety of x Sorbopyrus auricularis. The letter x means it is a cross between Sorbus aria (whitebeam, a species of mountain ash) and Pyrus (European pear). This hybrid came about in the early 1600s in the Bollwiller (also spelled Bollwyller) castle garden in Alsace, and is propagated by grafting rather than by seeds. One of its common names is Bollwyller pear.
The fruit is shaped like a very round but small pear, and about the size of a large apricot. It ripens to a rich yellow with a blush of reddish orange where the sun reaches it. The yellow flesh is similar in flavor to pear or apple butter. There is at least one dwarf variety, ‘Baby Shipova,’ that is 6 to 8 feet at maturity. It can take seven years or more before it bears fruit. The variety you mention, Shipova, is self-fertile, but this tree will be more productive if planted near a late-blooming European pear for cross-pollination.
According to Ciscoe Morris, “it forms a lovely 15- to 20-foot-tall pyramidal tree with downy silver-gray pear-shaped leaves that turn pink and yellow in autumn. In April, large clusters of attractive white flowers cover the tree.” It can suffer occasionally from fireblight and apple maggot. There is a chapter about Shipova in Lee Reich’s Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden (Timber Press, 2004).