Dana Hovey Pear (Spring 2027)

This is an incredible pear. One of the best pears I have tried.

The Winter Seckel

Dana Hovey is a small, russeted, golden pear that's thought to be a seedling of Seckel. It's sometimes called the Winter Seckel, because it eats a lot like Seckel but keeps far longer. Plenty of people who grow both like it better.

History

It came out of Roxbury, Massachusetts, around 1854. Francis Dana, a 19th century fruit enthusiast, raised it and named it Dana's Hovey in honor of C.M. Hovey, the Boston nurseryman who wrote The Fruits of America. Charles Downing, one of the great American pomologists, later wrote that if he were planting Seckel for market, he'd take Dana's Hovey instead, because it was larger and richer.

Fruit

• Size: small and squat, like Seckel
• Skin: golden yellow with russet
• Flesh: buttery and very juicy, intensely sweet and aromatic
• Storage: keeps much longer than Seckel and holds up well after ripening

When to Eat It

Pick it in early October and put it away for a few weeks before you eat it, like any winter pear. It's still great eating in December, and stored well it can go into February. A pear this good in the middle of winter is the whole reason to grow it.

Dana Hovey is new for us, so we'll add our own notes once our trees are fruiting.

Image credit: watercolor of the ‘Dana Hovey’ pear by Mary Daisy Arnold, USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Photos: “Dana Hovey pear fruit, PI 541169 (pyr0166.001.fruit.2005b)” by USDA-ARS National Plant Germplasm System, National Clonal Germplasm Repository, Corvallis, Oregon, via USDA GRIN, public domain; “Dana Hovey pear fruit, PI 541169 (pyr0166.001.fruit.2005a)” by USDA-ARS National Plant Germplasm System, National Clonal Germplasm Repository, Corvallis, Oregon, via USDA GRIN, public domain; “PI 541169 Dana Hovey fruit, 9-18-2025” by USDA-ARS National Plant Germplasm System, National Clonal Germplasm Repository, Corvallis, Oregon, via USDA GRIN, public domain.