Clapp's Favorite Pear (Spring 2027)

This is our first year growing Clapp's Favorite, so everything below is secondhand until we get more long-term data from our own mother trees.

Overview

Clapp's Favorite is an old Massachusetts summer pear that looks and eats a lot like Bartlett and ripens a week or so ahead of it. U.P. Hedrick called it "the standard late summer pear to precede Bartlett" in The Pears of New York (1921).

Origin and History

It came from the Clapp family in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Hedrick credits Thaddeus Clapp and says the date it originated is uncertain, but it was talked up as a promising new fruit at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in 1860, and the American Pomological Society first listed it in 1867. It's often said to be a cross of Flemish Beauty and Bartlett, but Hedrick said that "cannot be proved." It was taken to England and France early on and did well there too.

Fruit and Uses

Hedrick says it resembles Bartlett "in size, shape, color, and flavor," and is usually a little bigger. Fedco describes it as pale lemon yellow mottled with bright red, with very juicy, melting, sweet flesh. It ripens a week to ten days before Bartlett. The one trick with it is that it softens at the core soon after it ripens, so pick it early (Hedrick said at least ten days before it would ripen on the tree) and finish it indoors. It's a fresh-eating pear, and Fedco says it makes a great pear wine.

Growth Habit and Spacing

Ours are on OHxF 87 semi-dwarf rootstock, which runs about 75% the size of a full size pear. Plan on about 15 feet between trees, 12 feet if you're committed to pruning, or up to 18 feet for more room. Hedrick describes the tree as large, vigorous, long-lived and upright, and says it bears early and regularly. He went as far as saying "of all pears grown in America, Kieffer not excepted, the trees of Clapp Favorite are most fruitful." The big weakness is fire blight. In Hedrick's words, "no standard pear goes down so quickly as this one when blight is epidemic," so keep an eye on it and cut out strikes early.

Pollination

Clapp's Favorite needs a pollenizer. It blooms mid to mid-late, so pair it with Clara Frijs, Concorde, Cold Snap, Golden Russet Bosc, Harrow Sweet or Ubileen.

Cold Hardiness

Hedrick wrote that "after those of Flemish Beauty and Tyson, the trees of this variety show greater hardihood to cold than those of any other standard sort." Fedco rates it zone 4 and says it's been common in Maine for well over 100 years, and One Green World says it's hardy to -25F or below. We've listed it at zone 4.

Photo credit: “Clapps Liebling Birne Freilichtmuseum Roscheider Hof Frucht H16” by Helge Klaus Rieder, via Wikimedia Commons, released into the public domain under CC0.