Picture Perfect Pear Guide: All You Need to Know About Growing, Harvesting, Cooking, and Eating Delicious Pears

Please check out the brief video above, to learn what this premium collection is all about—the video will give you a glimpse into all the content in this collection, including history and background, planting tips, specific plant profiles, recipes, nutrition and health information, and resources to help you be the best food gardener you can be.

Curator’s Corner

Welcome to the adventure of growing your own pear trees! Apples are one of the most popular fruits, but pears aren’t far behind. Delicious, nutritious, and portable—pears are a perfect choice for the home gardener. Now, planting and nurturing pear trees does require… READ MORE

Norann Oleson, Editorial Director of Food Gardening Network

Introduction

Pear trees flourish in temperate climates the world over. This delicious fruit is packed with vitamins and minerals, low in calories, and high in versatility. You can eat them whole, poach them, bake them into pies, cakes, muffins, and breads—and there are plenty of cocktail recipes… READ MORE

Features

Mature, fruiting pear tree with a ladder for harvesting.

Types of Pear Trees

There are two basic types of pear trees: European and Asian. The European pear trees (Pyrus communis) are what you probably think of when you think pear—these trees produce a pear-shaped fruit with a delicate texture. The pears may be yellow, red, or brown; their skin may be russeted or smooth. READ MORE

Ornamental Nuisances: Flowering Pear Trees

While our focus is on pear trees that bear fruit that humans can enjoy, it is worth mentioning the Bradford and Callery flowering pear trees. They’re lovely to look at, but their fruits are tiny and hard. Growers brought the Callery pear (Pyrus calleryana) to the U.S. in 1909 to help limit the spread of fire blight in pear orchards; Callery flowering pears are very resistant to fire blight. READ MORE

Picking the Right Size Pear Tree

Pear trees do not reproduce true from seed and can’t be raised consistently from cuttings. Most commercial varieties of pear tree have two basic components: the rootstock and the scion. READ MORE