Come learn to turn invasive, useless Callery pear trees into beautiful, productive fruiting pear trees at our first ever spring grafting class.
For more than 4,000 years humans have been grafting trees. This ancient technique involves joining a cutting from one tree, called the scion, to another, which is called the rootstock. This allows us to quickly reproduce favored trees, and also to revitalize older trees with new vigorous branches.
Our three grafting experts will demonstrate how to top-work two species of tree, native persimmon and invasive callery pears, so that you can turn existing trees on your property into delicious fruit producers.
Each participant will get to take home a seedling rootstock tree to plant at home for grafting in the future.
- Mike Hughes is the Proprietor of 39th Parallel Nursery and Orchards in Lawrence, Kansas. 39th Parallel grows over 300 cultivars of fruit trees in their experimental orchards. Fruit cultivars are documented, distributed by selling scion and evaluated for performance in our Mid-West climate. The most exceptional fruit cultivars are then selected for sale in their nursery. The orchard is open to visitors for U-pick in the fall and provides a rare opportunity to sample uncommon fruit varieties.
- Clark DeLisle of Jefferson County, Kansas is an Educator, Researcher, Farmer and Fruit Enthusiast. He has a unique and instinctive understanding of plants and how they interact with their environment. Clark grows many types of small fruit and fruit trees and has introduced several of his own varieties of apple, pear and blackberry through selective breeding. Clark’s primary focus is growing pears, and he likely has the largest collection of pear cultivars in the Mid-West.
- Skylar Adamson is the founder and coordinator of Lawrence Fruit Tree Project, a program dedicated to advancing a culture of orchard stewardship in Lawrence, KS. With 17 years of experience in nursery work, he brings practical knowledge to teaching the art of grafting fruit trees. His work focuses on planting resilient trees, sharing hands-on skills, and fostering connections between people and the land.