Common Pear (Pyrus communis)

Pyrus communis Hedge Plants

Pyrus communis is the native, Wild Pear tree. It is a great hedge plant and produces small but edible fruit. Pyrus communis will reach 15 metres if it grows freely as a tree.
You can buy eating pear trees here, as well as ornamental Chanticleer pears and weeping pears.

Pyrus communis hedge plants are only delivered bareroot, during winter (Nov-March).
All our hedge plants are measured by their height in centimetres above the ground (the roots aren't measured).

Spacing a Pyrus communis hedge:
Plant Pyrus communis hedging at 3 plants per metre, 33cms apart.
It is typically used in a mixed native hedge.

General description of Pyrus communis plants:
The Common Pear tree, Pyrus communis is a medium sized tree that makes an outstanding hedgerow plant; we think should be used a lot more! It flowers heavily in April when the leaves are still small and pale green, which all looks great together. The mature leaves are glossy, rich green. The small, edible fruit are popular with birds and squirrels, but if you can get your hands on them they are usually sweet and quite delicious - this is a wild tree, so the fruit will vary. If the pears aren't sweet when fresh, use them for jam. The autumn foliage is orange & gold and if you are clipping these plants as a hedge, the leaves will stay on the branches for some time. Although it isn't truly thorny, its short twigs have pointed ends.

History & uses of Wild Pear:
Uncultivated pears are also called Pyrus pyraster. The history of the common pear is hard to trace. There are records of a cultivated pear growing in the palace of Sennacherib at Nineveh, Iraq, in 700 BC (note, that is over 2000 years before Europeans started breeding modern pears). The common pear we have today is believed to be hybrid of more ancient European and Asian trees, but with all the cultivated pear seeds that have escaped from orchards over the centuries, it is impossible to tell apart the really wild pear trees and the rogue pears that have bred with their wild cousins. Pear breeding in Europe probably began in the 1500's, but the first proper records are from about 1610, written by Jean Robin, King Henri III's fruit tree gardener.