Disasterous rainfall

Morettini

The non-stop rainfall we have been experiencing for the last couple of months has had a disasterous effect on the pears. Cultivars that are usually fairly robust and reliable have been affected by scab for the first time, and pollenation has been very low. Morettini is usually very healthy in growth, but nearly every fruitlet is completely covered with deep scab lesions. Beth is affected in both leaf and fruit, Winter Nelis and Josephine de Malines don't have a single fertilised fruitlet on the whole tree. Fondante d'Automne has just a couple that I could find. By contrast, Bishop's Thumb, Comice and Conference so far have bumper numbers of fruitlets, but overall I think it will be a very bad year for pears at least. A lot of the apple blossom was by contrast spoiled by unseasonably hard frosts but so far the fruit seems to have set. Fingers crossed that the season isn't an entire washout.

Winter Nellis, evaluation

The very good crop Winter Nellis have all ripened quite rapidly, it's been hard work keeping up with them. The first couple tasted horrid for some reason, bitter and slightly tannic. I don't know why as the rest have been very good. They need peeling as it is one of those varieties inclined to bitterness of the skin, but the flesh is soft, sweet and juicy with a musky flavour; there is usually some tinge of bitterness but just enough to add compexity. What I'd describe as a 'fondante' variety, soft and sweet, when you almost forget you are eating pear and not a sugared sweet.

Last pear picking

Decided to pick all the remaining pears today, to avoid potential damage from elements, and the last persistent squirrel. Will keep the Winter Nellis in open boxes, as they will ripen gradually from now, but might wrap the Josephine de Malines and Santa Claus in paper to try to prevent too much shrivelling in store, as these can take quite a while to start ripening.

Winter Nellis - crop

Excellent crop of 5 kg this year. Although classed as a very late pear, I find they start to ripen quite quickly when picked, unlike the other late pears which do keep well into the New Year.

Crop: Winter Nelis

A much better crop of Winter Nelis this year, weighing in at 3.5 kg, despite quite high losses to squirrel damage at various points. Picked October 16, for reference.

Blossom Winter Nelis

The last pear of 2009

Just eaten the last pear in store, a Winter Nellis. Very soft, sweet, juicy and fragrant. No more home-grown pears now until August.

Crop: Winter Nellis

Disappointing crop of only about a kilo.

Pears: Summer pruning

Before and after pruning shots of Winter Nelis and Glou Morceau. Winter Nelis has a particularly effusive, weeping habit which tends to shade the fruit a lot, although this doesn't seem to affect fruit quality that much. However, it looks untidy and pruning the excess growth now also means fewer leaves to sweep up later on. It will also allow light in to help ripen the Glou Morceau fruits, which need all the warmth and light they can get. 

Pruning revealed rather more Winter Nelis fruits than I'd been expecting. This variety is inclined to produce a lot of spurs close together, and my usual approach is to prune back to just one rather than allow a cluster of spurs to develop.

Crop: Winter Nelis

Another disappointingly sparse crop of Winter Nelis. However promising the crop looks when it sets, it rarely carries more than a single fruit per spur, and the majority of spurs end up bare of fruit. The size is disappointing, though I have seen this variety produce larger fruit elsewhere. Nevertheless, they will be very welcome, as they are usually the longest keeping of all my pears, and a nicely ripened pear is very welcome in December.

Bunyard's description:

WINTER NELIS. Her. Pom., II., 38. F. Nelis  d'Hiver. G. Coloma d'Hiver. (Bonne de Malines.)  Dessert, November to January, medium, 2\ by 2 J, round  conical, a little uneven. Skin, rough. Colour, greenish  yellow nearly covered with thin dark brown russet,  increasing round eye. Flesh, greenish white, trans-  parent, very juicy and sweet, delicately perfumed.  Eye, open in a shallow even basin. Stem, rather long,

Pear: Winter Nellis: crop

The somewhat diminutive fruit of Winter Nellis are sparsely distributed over the cordon. I'm not sure it offers the best value for money if space is short, but the quality of the small fruit is excellent and keeps well, maturing over quite a long period in mid-winter.

Winter Nelis: Blossom

Bunyard has little to say about Winter Nelis (listed without the extra 'L') other than to give a number of alternative names: Nelis d'Hiver, Coloma d'Hiver and Bonne de Malines. 

Winter Nelis spurs and flowers very freely, with a good number of flowers per panicle. The number that eventually set can be a little disappointing, and spurs need regular thinning to avoid congestion. Buds broke April 8th, full flower April 11.