Pear Pyrus fauriei Westwood Korean Sun

Korean Sun, sold as Westwood, is a genuinely small ornamental pear with a low, rounded, spreading head rather than the tight upright shape most people picture from this genus. Its autumn colour is the distinguishing feature, turning through orange to deep red purple after a summer of glossy dark foliage, and spring brings a heavy flush of white blossom on bare wood. The small scale is what makes it usable in courtyards, on narrow verges and under power lines where a full sized pear would take over.

Small scale planting and the light it needs

Full sun and moderate water. It suits temperate and cool districts, from Melbourne and the Southern Highlands across to Adelaide and the south west of Western Australia, and like the other pears the autumn tones sharpen where nights get cold, so a warm coastal garden gets colour that is softer and later. Give it drainage, ordinary soil and a mulched root run rather than lawn hard against the trunk. Fruit is small and of no interest to people, though birds will take it.

The failure mode is shade, and it costs you the two things you bought the tree for. In half shade the blossom thins and the autumn colour never really arrives, leaving a green tree that goes dull yellow and drops. The second thing to plan for is the low branching habit, since this pear branches close to the ground and spreads, so where it sits over a path or a parking space you lift the crown gradually from a young age rather than cutting big limbs off later.

The small pear against the street tree pears

Where Capital or Chanticleer would outgrow the space, this is the pear to specify instead. Both of those are upright street trees built to carry a crown well above head height, while Korean Sun stays low and wide and works at garden scale. The trade is screening, because a row of this will not hide a two storey wall, so if the job is blocking a neighbour's window take Capital. It is also the one to use where a tree has to sit close to a house without shading the rooms behind it. If the job is a small feature tree with blossom and autumn colour in a courtyard or under wires, take this one.

Light pruning and a spring feed

Prune straight after flowering, which keeps the spring display intact and still leaves the whole season for the cuts to close. Keep it light: remove crossing and rubbing branches, thin any congestion in the middle of that rounded head so light and air get in, and raise the lower limbs in small steps if you need clearance. It does not want the heavy formative work a large pear needs, and it does not want shortening back into a ball. A light spring feed suits a tree this size, and water through the first two summers while the roots run. Compare the group under ornamental and fruiting pears.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 3 sizes, from 330mm up to 430mm, priced from $149.00 to $249.00 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.