Chanticleer Pear
Longmont, Colorado area landscapes {Monthly Series}
Chanticleer Pear or Pyrus calleryana ‘Chanticleer’ (Glen’s Form’) is a pyramidal shaped, non-fruit bearing ornamental tree that is highly used in both urban streetscapes and in residential landscape applications. It is a very desirable tree due to its resistance to disease, ability to process pollution, and because it produces a plethora of clumps of small bright white flowers early in the spring. It also holds leaves well into the late fall and carries deep red and crimson leaves early into the winter season. The upright growth habit makes it ideal for both narrow streetscapes between sidewalk and road, and for smaller urban yards where space is at a premium.
Chanticleer Pear does well in our Longmont Colorado landscapes where there is not in standing water or extremely dry non-irrigated conditions. Water within an established lawn is usually sufficient moisture for this tree. It is prized because it can withstand our cold dry winters down to about -25 degrees, needs minimal pruning to maintain shape, and, because of the shape, it can withstand our early and late season snowfalls. The branching structure is more upright and the wood is quite strong so branch breakage from snow is usually minimal. Though termed ‘fruitless’, the plant does produce some marble sized fruit, but by no means is the fruiting proliferous. Cleanup of dropped fruit is not necessary, nor is it messy. Large, waxy green and shiny ovate leaves push strongly in spring, hardening off in late summer and keep well into fall with scarlet hues. Growth rate can be strong, pushing 2-3’ on good growing years, so this tree, once established, can become an early prominent focal point in a new build landscape. Other uses on more rural landscapes might be as a tree lined driveway or as corner anchors to structures or outbuildings. This trees only setback is that the flowers can produce an unpleasant odor for some people.
Discovered in the 1950’s in Cleveland, OH, by Ed Scanlon, a famous urban tree manager who was the Commissioner of Shade Trees in Cleveland, this tree is sometimes called the Cleveland Pear. Ed planted more than 100 species of trees in Cleveland in the 50’s to determine what species worked best in the urban landscape. The Cleveland or Chanticleer Pear, as he named it, once propagated at the Scanlon Nursery in the 60’s, fit that bill. It has been widely planted since.
See Edward H. Scanlon, ‘Progenitor of I.P.P.S. and Other Ambitious Endeavors,’ Philip A. Barker, Center for Urban Forest Research, U.S.D.A. Forest Service, Davis, California 95616.
Combined Proceedings International Plant Propagators’ Society, vol. 57, 2007, pp. 535-540.
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