Perry is a fermented beverage (like wine or cider) produced from pears. Just as the best cider requires apple varieties selected for the purpose, high-quality perry requires perry pears.

I planted 11 perry pears in 2004 at my home orchard in Zone 4a in Nerstrand, MN. All trees became established and grew well until the winter of 2008-2009, which was quite cold but not unusually so, with temperatures dipping to around -25 degrees F. None of the 30 or so known hardy fruit trees (including Seckel, Luscious, and Stancyville pears) at our location were injured.

One tree, "Blake's Pride," a dessert pear shipped by the nursery by mistake in place of "Blakeney Red," did not survive the winter and showed extensive signs of cold injury to the main trunk.

"Romanian" (on p. betulifolia) has shown repeated winter dieback, cold injury, and fireblight damage.

"Gin," "Barnet," "Brandy," and "Gelbmostler" (all on p. betulifolia) showed considerable trunk damage on the south side of the tree but have, so far, remained reasonably healthy and vigorous. In addition, "Barnett" showed considerable tip dieback.

These varieties escaped injury and are recommended for further experimentation by growers seeking perry pears for cold climates:

* Butt
* Flemish beauty
* Potomac
* Normannischen ciderbirne
* Yellow Huffcap
* Hendre Huffcap (also called Hendrik's Huffcap)

In my orchard, these trees are on a mixture of Winter Nelis an p. betulifolia roots. Both seem to work well.