Iirc named by an (Italian?) Immigrant because it reminded him of his home where they grew pears? Or something like that? The amusing thing is you cant actually grow pears there because like a lot of stone fruit they require freezing winters. They've developed specific apples that will fruit without freezes, so maybe theres some specific cultivars that they've developed, not sure, but it was certainly true when the place was named in the 1800's
It's like when a new traffic girl gets hired on TV or radio and they try to pronounce Kuykendahl. Or when people say "Humble" instead of "Umble".
It was that ****ing guy @AroundTheWorld The two of my friends who say Pearl-und grew up in Houston but are from Spanish-speaking families. /shrug Kolache is 'ko-lauch-ee' not 'Koh-lach' What's a koh-lach?
I thought that Pears are more related to Apples than Stone Fruit such as Peaches, Plums, Cherries, Apricots etc.
Google "zone 9 pear or zone 8b pear". All of them will grow, but most require 600 hours below a certain temptature in order to fruit. There's a handful of variatials but 90% of variatials require more.cold to fruit properly. After some digging apparently "fire blight" which is weather sensitive also plays a role why there are no large.scale commercial pear farms in the Houston area. Same reason nobody has huge commercial apple orchards in south Texas.
Fair enough. I remember picking pears as a kid and really enjoyed those things. With that said, maybe things have changed.
I guess I misspoke in that you CAN get them to grow and many will grow nice fruit. Not commercially viable to grow at scale, would have been a more accurate statement.