Hardy Peaches
Blushingstar – (description taken from the Stellar peach website) Blushingstar is a high quality white fleshed peach that ships and stores well. Ripens 20 days after Redhaven. Flavor is distinctive— very sweet, slightly acidic, very aromatic. Flesh white tinged with pink and does not brown, completely freestone. Hardy and open growing with some resistance to bacterial spot. A white peach that makes converts of all who try it.
Canadian Harmony – Late-blooming, vigorous tree. Cold hardiness comparable to Redhaven. Medium to large, firm, yellow freestone with red near the pit. Skin almost entirely blushed red.
Challenger peach trees produce a yellow fleshed freestone fruit that requires 950 chilling hours and ripens 24 days before Elberta. Zones 2-7
Clayton – supposed to have some resistance against PLC and bac. spot, not sold commercially.
Contender – This is a large round peach with 70% red blush on a yellow background. It has a firm yellow flesh that is resistant to browning. This is a great tasting peach. Recommended for all home orchards because it crops well and is very dependable. Contender ripens from July to August, requires 1050 chilling hours. Zones 2-7 moderately resistant to bacterial spot.
Contender – hardy, This self pollinating tree produces sweet extra-juicy fruit that is an absolute delight for fresh eating, canning, baking or freezing. Trees grow to only 12-15′ tall. Fruit ripens mid to late August.
Fingerlake Super Hardy –
Gold Dust does well for me and is very early. It is an early peach that tastes like a late peach.
Golden Jubilee – Favorite cold country peach for canning and fresh-eating. Derived from Elberta, ripens three weeks earlier (between Redhaven and July Elberta). Medium-sized, oblong, yellow freestone (red at pit). Skin one-third blushed with mottled red. 800 hours. Self-fruitful.
Halehaven. Used fresh and for freezing. From Ontario, Canada. Introduced in 1968. 1,000 hours. Self-fruitful.
Harken – From Canada, a sibling of Canadian Harmony peach. Red-skinned yellow freestone ripens early mid-season, a few days after Redhaven . Sweet, flavorful, mid-sized fruit, non-browning flesh. One of the highest-rated peaches for Western Washington. Dessert/cooking/freezing. 800 hours. Self-fruitful
Harrow Beauty –
Intrepid – very hardy. This fruit is yellow fleshed freestone that requires 1000 chilling hours and ripens 17 days before Elberta. Zones 2-7
Madison – hardy
McKay Peach – very hardy, Borderline Zone 4-5. Development of McKay Nursery, Watertown, WI, it has survived many hard winters. More hardy than most, producing large firm fruit of excellent quality. Ripens early to mid August.
PF24C. It is a much firmer peach and extremely good flavor.
PF 24C Cold Hardy – This is a very unique peach variety that has it all. Usually with a kind that is very spring and winter hardy like this one, something else is sacrificed, such as size, firmness, etc. But this peach is very large, firm, highly colored, bacterial spot resistant, and has excellent, rich flavor. The fruit has much better size (2-3/4inch up ) and quality than other varieties thought to be hardy such as Reliance and Madison.
PF 35 Fat Lady – A classy, large peach (2-3/4 and 3 inches). It is highly colored for the very late season. It is particularly hardy coming through with a good crop regularly. Very freestone; bacterial spot resistant. It has better fruit color, flavor and a stronger tree than the older late varieties Fayette and Encore. I have held this variety in the cooler for three weeks after harvest for extended late sales several times now and the fruit always remains very juicy and tasty. I believe this peach is a real winner for the very late season.
PF 8 Ball – This early very FREESTONE peach variety ripens 10 days before Redhaven. It is a large peach for this early, it has high color, great texture and excellent flavor, bac spot resistant and hangs well on the tree. PF 8 Ball is a late bloomer.
PF 19-007 – (Description courtesy Paul Friday) One of my very favorite peach varieties. This peach variety ripens 17 days after Redhaven and where two industry standards PF 17 and PF 23 overlap. In my opinion it has even better fruit quality than either of them. It has beautiful, large (mostly 3″) highly colored firm fruit and is bacterial spot resistant, BROWN ROT RESISTANT and a truly freestone peach. It is very prolific. In the 2002 season, when most varieties in Michigan froze from a spring frost, this variety had a full crop in a very low place. PF 19-007 also blooms late. Fruit has been exceptional in every way every year since.
Redhaven is a Michigan peach, and should have the bud hardiness you require, Zone 5-8. One of the finest early peaches, ripening in early August. Medium sized, delicious flavor, color is red with yellow flesh. Hardy, heavy producer.
Reliance – Late blooming. Very cold hardy/frost hardy. Sweet, flavorful yellow freestone. Best choice for climates having severe cold in winter and spring. Harvest 2-3 weeks before Elberta. Showy bloom. 1000 hours. Self-fruitful.
Reliance – Most winter-hardy peach we know. Bred in New Hampshire; released in 1964. Medium size fruit; not attractive — dull red finish. Freestone. Very hardy in bud, stem tissue, and blossoms. Flavor doesn’t approach that of less hardy varieties, but it’s still the choice for difficult areas.
Trugold – Gurneys says it blooms later then Contender
Veteran is a tasty peach with a thick fuzzy skin. It is great for canning because the skins pop off easily. It was bred for cold-hardiness in Canada. It has a particularly late bloom as well which is good for avoiding frost damage.
Veteran – One of the most reliable peaches for cold climates: winter hardy and late-blooming. Yellow to yellow-orange skin. Yellow flesh is freestone when fully ripe, and richly flavored. Harvest one week before Elberta. 900 hours. Self-fruitful.
Winblo – freestone with yellow flesh. It requires 850 chilling hours and ripens 15 days before Elberta. Zones 7-8
Wisconsin Balmer – hardy
Information borrowed from http://seedlingapples.wordpress.com/articles-2/