Blossom - Morettini

The first flowers of Morettini have just unfurled, heralding Spring! A sight to cheer the heart!

Full blossom!

Blossom - Glou Morceau

Blossom - Fondante d'Automne

Another year of good blossom on Fondante d'Automne. I'm really impressed with everything about this variety, it's compact growth, ease of spurring, reliable crops and excellent flavour and quality of the fruit. Not so sure about the success of trying to grow it as a spiral, but not fault of the variety itself.

Blossom - Pitmaston Duchess

This is the first year I've had any decent amount of blossom on either of my Pitmaston Duchess trials, let alone any fruit. This one is growing as half of an arch, and as yet is quite short but I hope a couple of fruits might set for evaluation. It's a triploid variety, needing two pollinators, but this should not be a problem given the number of other pear varieties in the front, plus the blossom season has been so compressed by the late arrival of Spring that there appears to be more overlap between varieties than in other years.

Blossom - red comice

The red buds open creamy white, against bronze foliage. This young espalier is starting to spur up nicely this year, having been rather delicate in habit previously.

Blossom Winter Nelis

Blossom - Devoe

Devoe with Dr Jules, Stanta Claus and Winter Nellis behind.

Not quite so well synchronised...

Second Pear cordon. From left Winter Nellis, Dr Jules Guyot (with Santa Claus and Devoe extensions) Glou Morceau and Quince Meeches Prolific. The spaces in between rows are vegetable beds that are quite productive despite root competition (and the horrible, thin topsoil that sits on a layer of water-logged sand and gravel).

Synchronised blossoming

The first group of cordons now in full bloom. From left, Doyenne de Comice; Concorde; Conference and Beth (with an extension of Goreham on one limb). The blooms open within just a few days of each other, and pollination has been good over the 10 years these cordons started to produce fruit. All are growing on Quince C.