Ornamental Pear Pyrus calleryana Winter Glow

Winter Glow is the broad one. It carries a full, broadly pyramidal crown rather than a narrow column, dense enough in summer to screen a first floor window, and its distinguishing trait is the autumn foliage: deep burgundy and purple red, held on the tree well into the cold months when other deciduous trees have long dropped. White blossom covers the bare framework in spring. It goes in on wide verges, in avenues, and as a shade and screening tree in open gardens.

Room to spread, and where the colour comes from

Full sun, moderate water, moderate growth. It copes with clay, wind, heat and street conditions, which is why councils and developers use so much of it, and it grows through Victoria, New South Wales, the ACT, South Australia and the cooler parts of Western Australia. Bare root stock plants over winter while dormant. The thing to plan for is width, because this is not a boundary strip tree, and squeezing it against a fence or a house wall means cutting into the crown every few years to keep a path clear.

The failure mode is expecting that late burgundy display in a warm climate. The long held colour depends on cool autumn nights, and in Brisbane or coastal northern New South Wales the tree still performs but the tones are muted, later and briefer, and it may barely go properly dormant. If the late colour is the reason you are buying it, plant it in a cool or cold district. If you garden warm, buy it for the blossom, the density and the shade instead, and set your expectations for autumn accordingly.

Winter Glow or a columnar pear

Compared with Capital, this is a different tool. Capital is a narrow column for a tight side boundary or a green screen, while Winter Glow needs room to spread and rewards it with a crown you can sit under. Compared with Red Spire, the shape is similar but fuller, and the autumn foliage hangs on considerably longer. Choose Winter Glow for an avenue, a nature strip with depth to it, or a front lawn where the late season colour is the point. Choose a narrower pear anywhere the crown will meet a wall.

Early pruning and steady feeding

Prune in the dormant window, late winter into very early spring. Do the structural work in the first few seasons, since pears form tight upright unions that split under load years later, so space the scaffold limbs along the trunk and remove the ones pinched against the leader while the cuts are still small. Lift the lower branches gradually to the clearance you need over a path or driveway. Feed at bud break with a balanced fertiliser, mulch out to the drip line and keep it clear of the trunk, and keep the water up through the first two summers. The rest of the pears sit under ornamental and fruiting pears.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 9 sizes, from 330mm up to Bare Root Advanced, priced from $50.95 to $649.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. Every size here is established stock rather than a starter plant, so this line is intended for immediate effect rather than for growing on. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to choosing an ornamental pear.