Apples and Pears

Yorkshire Girl

I am looking to buy a couple of espalier apple and pear trees.

I was thinking of the following:

Apple James Grieve
Apple Scrumptious 
Pear Williams Bon Chetrien
Pear Conference

Any comments/advice welcome, would really like your thoughts.

Thank you!

steephill

Grow fruit you know you will want to use and which will grow well in your garden. Don't buy just because they are on "special offer".

Yorkshire Girl

I hope that these will grow well and we will definitely use the fruit. I haven't grown fruit before - so was just looking for advice on whether these are good varieties.

ZeroZero1

Personally I would stick to well established varieties. The conference pear is the only one I recognise from your list. Make sure the trees are self fertile unless you have more than one. As for apples have you considered a cooker, such as Bramley? 

Dovefromabove

I'm growing the pear Concorde as an espalier. Its a self fertile cross between  Conference and Comice. Large juicy fruit and very productive.  Highly recommended. 

pansyface

I would be wary of buying a Williams pear, also known as a Bartlett pear, because they can have problems with their grafts.

I bought one, grafted onto a quince rootstock. It was fine for a couple of years and then snapped clean off at the graft one day.

I discovered that Williams trees produce a chemical which interacts with the quince rootstock and effectively destroys the union. 

Some growers double graft these trees, in other words you have the rootstock, an intermediate scion and then the final tree. More expensive to do this but more secure.