Cold Snap® Pear Tree | Bare Root, Zone 3

Cold Snap pears ripening on the branch against a blue sky

Cold Snap® Pear (Spring 2027)

$34.99

Reliable shipping

Flexible returns

Pollination Needs a partner

Bloom group 5 of 7 (Mid-Late)

See trees that will pollenize it Pear Pollination Map

Ripening

Will it finish before your first hard freeze?

Check it on the Ripening Map (opens in a new tab)

Disease resistanceResists 1 of 2

Fire blight : Resistant, 4 of 5
Pear scab : Unknown, no published data yet

Scored 1 to 5. Higher resists better, and ? means no published data yet.

See it on our pear disease chart (opens in a new tab)

At a glance: Cold Snap® Pear is a pear tree rated hardy to zone 3 in our ratings (winters to -40°F), not self-fertile, so it needs a different variety nearby as a pollenizer (bloom group 5 of 7, mid-late for a European pear), and it ripens about Sep 27 to Oct 10 in Missoula (our Missoula estimate).

Hardy to	Zone 3 to 8. A bare number means the whole of zone 3, colder half included (winters to -40°F). Find your zone with our cold hardiness calculator.
Chill hours	About 800 hours (600 to 1,000). Our estimate. No published figure exists for this variety yet. Montana winters give it plenty. In milder climates, make sure your winters average at least this much. Check your chill hours or see our sources.
Pollination	Needs Cross-Pollination. Bloom group 5 of 7 (mid-late), mid spring here. Cold Snap is not self-fertile. Plant it with Flemish Beauty or Seckel; Cummins trials found poor fruit set when Bartlett was the partner. Good partners we carry: Flemish Beauty Pear, Seckel Pear, Clapp's Favorite Pear, Clara Frijs Pear and 16 more. Pear Pollination Map.
Ripens	About Sep 27 to Oct 10 in Missoula (a Missoula estimate from published sources). Real years swing about a week either way. See the date for your town.
Rootstock and size	OHxF 87: semi-dwarf, about 14 to 19 ft tall unpruned. The most precocious OHxF stock. Our rootstock guide.
Good for	Winter storage (8/10), fresh eating (7/10). Scores are our own 1 to 10 ratings; 8 and up makes our Best Of lists.
Deer	Sometimes damaged by deer.
What you get	Bare root, 2-3 ft or 3-5 ft. Shipped or picked up in Missoula in spring, roots wrapped in moist sawdust. Guaranteed to bud out.

Overview

Originally bred as Harovin Sundown in the 1970s by H. A. Quamme, this variety was licensed to the Vineland Innovation and Research Center, which began selling trees in 2015.

Why We're Growing Cold Snap

Although this is our second year growing Cold Snap, we were enticed by its breeding for Ontario’s cold climate and its strong disease resistance. Hardy down to -40°F, these pears will thrive across much of Montana—except in some of the more brutal areas east of the Divide. If you're in a spot that regularly sees temps colder than -40°F, we recommend going with one of the Russian pears grafted onto Ussurian pear. (We have several of those for Spring 2027, including Krazulya, Larinskaya, Krasnobokaya and Vekovaya.)

Rootstock and Tree Sizes

These Cold Snap pears are grafted onto OHxF87 rootstock, which is also hardy to -40°F to -45°F. Trees come in two sizes (same age but one grew better in the nursery):

Current-year bare root stock: 2-3 ft. tall
Current-year bare root stock: 3-5 ft. tall

Questions we get about Cold Snap® Pear

Does Cold Snap® Pear need a pollenizer?

Yes. Cold Snap® Pear needs pollen from a different variety that blooms at about the same time. Cold Snap is not self-fertile. Plant it with Flemish Beauty or Seckel; Cummins trials found poor fruit set when Bartlett was the partner. Partners we carry include Flemish Beauty Pear, Seckel Pear, Clapp's Favorite Pear.

How cold hardy is Cold Snap® Pear?

We rate Cold Snap® Pear hardy to zone 3, which means winters down to about -40°F. Our ratings come from real winters at our two Montana sites and from trusted growers across the North, not from a catalog average.

How many chill hours does Cold Snap® Pear need?

About 800 hours of winter chill (we count hours at or below 45°F), likely somewhere between 600 and 1,000. Nobody has published a chill figure for it, so that's our estimate from its relatives and origin. Our chill hours guide has a calculator for your winters, and our research page lists the sources.

When does Cold Snap® Pear ripen?

About Sep 27 to Oct 10 in Missoula, Montana (an estimate built from published sources and our climate). Warmer places run earlier and cooler places later; our ripening map converts the date to your town.

How big does Cold Snap® Pear get?

We graft Cold Snap® Pear onto OHxF 87 (semi-dwarf), which makes a tree roughly 14 to 19 ft tall if you never prune it.

What is Cold Snap® Pear good for?

Our top use scores for Cold Snap® Pear are winter storage (8/10), fresh eating (7/10). Anything scored 8 or higher makes our Best Of lists.

Is Cold Snap® Pear disease resistant?

Yes, for the diseases it's been tested for. It's resistant to fire blight. Nobody has published solid data on it for pear scab yet, so we list that as unknown. Our pear disease resistance chart has every rating, the notes and the sources.

Will deer eat Cold Snap® Pear?

Sometimes. Deer browse Cold Snap® Pear now and then, so protect young plants where deer pressure is high.

Juice data

SG (Brix)	Acid g/L	Tannin g/L	pH
1.055 (13.5) E	2.5 E	0.3 E	not published

Letters show how solid each number is: M measured, P published but weaker, E our estimate.

No juice test found for this pear; numbers are our estimate.

Run Cold Snap® Pear through the hard cider calculator to see what it does in a blend.

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Pollination partners

Trees that will pollenize Cold Snap Pear

Cold Snap Pear needs a different European pear nearby to set fruit. Every tree below blooms at the same time and has pollen that works for it. Plant partners within about 100 feet.

Bloom group 5 of 7 (Mid-Late)

Pollination Needs a partner

Pollen Good pollenizer

20 trees we carry will pollenize it. 13 in stock now.