Pear foliage

Foliage of Fondante d'Automne

Autumn colours

Scabby leaves of pear, Santa Claus and strawberry leaves.

some autumn photos

Foliage: Beurré Hardy

Beurré Hardy is well-known for good foliage colour, and doesn't disappoint. The older leaves are a rich burgundy, the younger ones a mixture of coral and orange. They haven't withstood the recent winds as well as the others, disappointingly. I think the autumn effect would be a lot greater as a half-standard, and Beurré Hardy is really far too vigourous to enjoy life as a step-over (only because I had to move it rapidly from the sheep-vandalised orchard, and had only a limited space for it). I will leave it for the present, but will propagate another if I have rootstocks and space to spare.

Foliage: Red Comice

Not as highly coloured as the spring foliage or it's neighbours Fondante d'Automne and Beurré Hardy, but still a nice, even mid-orange hue. There are quite a few Nerine Bowdenii growing nearby, obscured in this photograph. Not really sure whether the dark pink complements or clashes with the foliage colour!

Foliage: Fondante d' Automne

Really pleased with the colouring of Fondante d'Automne, almost rainbow-like with more orangey hues at the top and rich burgundy red at the bottom. Need to do something about finding a more robust frame for my spiral pyramid; either that or sort out the dangerous subsidence that seems to be affecting my house LOL!

Foliage colour: Dr Jules' sport

Another interesting instance of colour. The portion of the Dr Jules Guyot cordon that seems to be a bud sport is showing much greater and earlier Autumn colour than the parent.

Foliage Colour: Beth/Gorham

One of the many qualities of pears I prefer to those of apples is their ability to colour nicely in Autumn. Not all are as good as others, so I'll just pick out those that are better than average.

Beth goes a nice shade of buttery yellow, but this year has been out done by the scion of Gorham I grafted on, shown on the top photo. If you look at the other one, the limb of Gorham is the top right oblique limb; the next one along is a full cordon of Beth, which is a little behind on colouring (the shape is a sort of bent Y, as a full double V wasn't possible a the end of the line). The other cordons are Conference, Concorde and Comice, in that order, which haven't started to fall or colour at all yet.

Front Garden colour

Not really relevant to the technicalities of fruit growing, but I am rather pleased with my potager-style front garden, with red-coloured flowers and foliage mixing with standard and step-over pears. The rose, Scarlet Fire, looks attractive growing into the pear, but I will prune it back hard after flowering to let in some light and air for all the plants around.

Superb display

Not a great photo but I am pleased with the non-fruit plantings in my 'pear garden'. Shrub roses Scarlet Fire and Rosa Moyesii 'Geranium', growing into half-standards of Pear Morettini and quince Sobu, clashing with Papaver orientalis Turkenlouis'. Contrast added by purple hues of Lysimachia Ciliata 'Firecracker', various purple-leaved sedums, Iris 'Black Swan' and Allium christophii.

Both roses produce decorative hips in later on, though I'm slightly disappointed with those of Scarlet Fire.

Red Comice - espalier

Having removed the top tier of this espalier, I'm really pleased to see strong extension growth in just about the right place to establish another tier to the espalier. I love the colour of this variety's foliage, almost a coral red maturing to bronze. It's particularly vibrant with the other colours in the front garden (Red shrub roses, valerian and Lysimachia ciliata 'Firecracker'. Cropping hasn't been terribly good so far, but I think it will improve with time.

Max Red Bartlett: RIP

My only real pear disaster. I grafted this onto the previous stepover to make a double-tier espalier, but this variety has been consistently unhealthy, with about 30% of spurs showing significant canker-related die-back this year, with the few flower buds failing to develop properly. It did fruit reasonably well early on, but not for a couple of years and the plant is frankly quite unsightly. I have now taken a pruning saw to it and will either probably just let the Red Comice make another tier (if it has the energy!). I have Double de Guerre in mind, though perhaps for a different location.

Red Comice: blossom

I planted this one as I particularly wanted decorative foliage as the espalier is in my front garden. I later grafted on another layer of Max Red Bartlett, which also has red-tinted foliage and pink flowers (of more later). Both flower usually much later than the normal varieties. It's more delicate in growth than the normal Comice, but is spurring up nicely now and the growth is attractive and healthy.