Wharton's Court - Pear
Callery Ornamental Pear
Pyrus calleryana
This is one of the most common and well-known ornamental Pear street trees, with a slender, upright form and glossy, dark-green foliage that creates a wonderful foil for the mass of fragrant white flowers in March-May. These attract pollinators making it an ecologically significant tree.
'Chanticleer' or ‘Capital’ are the best ornamental Pears for autumn colour, with the foliage turning vivid red. Both are the cultivars of the Callery Pear species which is native to China.
The solo tree on the Market Place near the corner of Queen Street was probably planted at the same time as the ones in Wharton’s Court, which seem to have been a row of five. The planting ring of one remains beside the one pictured and the other one is probably under the shop extension. The other two are outside the Courtyard coffee shop and pleasant to sit under.