Ornamental Pear Pyrus calleryana Capital

Capital is the narrowest ornamental pear in this range, a tight upright column on a single leader, tighter than Chanticleer and nothing like the round headed pears. White blossom covers the bare stems in early spring, summer foliage is glossy and dark, and autumn runs red to purple and holds late on the tree. That column is the whole reason it gets specified: on narrow verges, in the gap between a house and a boundary fence, and in repeated rows used as a living screen.

Screening rows, spacing and the sawfly

Full sun, moderate water, moderate growth, and it handles urban conditions well, including clay, wind, heat and reflected glare off paving. It grows across the southern and eastern mainland and colours most strongly where autumn nights get cold. For a solid screen, Capital is commonly planted about 2 to 3 m apart so the columns knit into one green wall, and for a row where each tree still reads as a separate shape you give them more. The crown does thicken with age, so a row spaced too tightly will merge whether you meant it to or not.

The failure mode is pear and cherry slug. The small dark sawfly larva, slug like and shiny, grazes the upper leaf surface and leaves the canopy skeletonised and brown by midsummer. It is a nuisance rather than a killer, but a screen full of brown leaves defeats the point of planting a screen. Hose the larvae off with a strong jet, dust the foliage, or spray at the first sign, and expect a second generation later in the season.

Capital or Chanticleer or Korean Sun

Measure the width you have before choosing. Chanticleer is a teardrop, narrower than the round headed pears but noticeably broader than this, and it is the better pick for an avenue where the crowns are meant to meet overhead. Westwood Korean Sun goes the other way entirely, a small low spreading head for courtyards and for planting under power lines. Capital is the one for the tightest gaps and for screening a neighbouring wall or window, where every extra metre of crown width is a problem rather than a benefit. If the row has to hide a first floor window, this is the practical answer.

Keeping the column

Prune in late winter, before the buds move. The work is mostly removing anything that breaks the column: shoots heading outwards, competing leaders at the top, and limbs attached at a very tight angle where bark is squeezed into the union, because those are the forks that split out in a storm years later. Do that thinning while the cuts are small. Feed in early spring with a complete slow release fertiliser, mulch a wide ring but keep it off the trunk itself, and water through the first two summers. More shapes under ornamental and fruiting pears.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 17 sizes, from 200mm up to 750L, priced from $83.95 to $5169.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. The smaller pots hold younger plants that cost less each and establish quickly, which suits hedges, screens and mass planting where the plant count adds up. The larger sizes carry several more years of growth on the farm and give height and presence straight away, which is what you want for a single feature position or a screen that cannot wait. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to choosing an ornamental pear.