Callery Pear, Large Trees

Pyrus calleryana Chanticleer Standard Trees

Pyrus calleryana Chanticleer, the Callery Pear, is an ornamental, flowering pear tree with a long season of interest and leaf cover. The glossy, bright green foliage appears very early in the season (often the first) and still looks fresh in autumn. When the leaves finally turn, their autumn colouring is magnificent: a purple-red that can shift to crimson or orange-yellow, depending on the soil, and it lasts into December in most years. All of which makes it an outstanding subject to use for screening, avenue and roadside planting or as a structural statement. These vigorous trees can reach a height of 10-12 metres.
You can buy eating pear trees, as well as weeping ornamental pears. Browse our full range of trees here.

It is covered in clusters of creamy white blossom in early spring that are a good source of nectar for bees when it is in short supply. The fruit is inedible, inconspicuous and is usually eaten by wildlife.

Features

• Superb foliage tree, good for screening.
• White flowers in early spring are good for bees.
• Full sun is best, partial shade is fine.
• Any reasonably well drained soil.
• Pollution tolerant.
• To 10-12m
• Bareroot Delivery Only Nov-March

Growing Callery Pear Trees

They will look best in full sun, but partial shade is fine as long as they get all the midday sun. They aren't fussy about soil and like heavy clay.

If there is heavy snow, gently brush it off with an upwards motion to keep the branches safe from breaking.

Callery Pears in your Garden

Chanticleer pear trees are ideally suited to avenue and structural plantings alike. They are medium-sized and slender, with a tight, upright crown that has been described as holding its breath - absolutely perfect for planting in a line 3-4 metres apart. They are also well suited for planting on either side of the beginning of a path or for framing a focal point.

It won't be happy right on the coast, but tolerates salty winds well.

Did You Know?

It was bred in the USA by Edward Scanlon, who used parent trees that were brought from China in the early 1900s by the famous collector Ernest Wilson. The parent tree is named after a French missionary to China, Joseph Callery.

Chanticleer is the name of a cockerel who appears in several medieval stories, including The Nun's Priest's Tale in The Canterbury Tales. It means "sing clearly" in old-ish French.

This tree has a lot of critics in hot areas of America, where the climate reduces its attractive shelf life, causing it to start cracking apart after around thirty years. This is not an issue anywhere in the UK.

It was awarded an RHS Award of Garden Merit in 2002, but lost it in a later review. We don't know why.