[Janeymiddlewife]

OK - i have planted my donated unnamed pear tree and going up to see if it's survived 2 nights of gales - I was planning on planting a bramley & blenheim orange on dwarf rootstock in the autumn, but can i grow them cheek by jowl with the pear? Will they cross pollinate - is this bad - will they produce alien monster fruit  - sorry if this is one of those obvious "stupid" questions, but hadn't planned on this    - thanks
M-I-L 

[Nobbie]

There will be no problem with cross pollination as this only affects plants raised from the seeds resulting from the cross polination. I don't think pears cross polinate with apples anyway. More of a concern would be whether the pear needs a pollination partner. If it's Conference (a very common variety) then that's self fertile, but most others need another pear to pollinate with. Where did the pear come from? The Bramely is a triploid (sp?) and does best with two pollination partners, but if there are a few apple trees in the neighbourhood you should be ok.

[wafflycat]

As far as I know, as pears and apples are completely different species, they won't pollinate each other. That would be a bit like expecting a cat & a dog to cross-breed...

[paintedlady]

- will they produce alien monster fruit  -

   even if cross pollination was possible, it shouldn't affect the fruit anyway LOL.

Bramley, even on semi dwarf root stock will still grow out to a wide spread so make sure you give your trees plenty of elbow room 

[Janeymiddlewife]

Thanks all - it survived! M I L thinks it's a comice, it's def not self- fertile as she had it for 5 years and it never produced anything. There is a tree on next but one plot, but I never see the plot holder to ask - I may need another plot at this rate hadn't planned on an orchard, but we get through a LOT of apples so would definitely pay for itself - OMG - i can't believe I just said that