Beth is an excellent early-season pear, very well suited to UK gardens. It grows in a neat and compact fashion (although quite upright like most pears). Cropping is very good in most situations.
Beth has a particularly good flavour, with the characteristic melting texture usually associated with the French pear varieties.
**All prices include delivery (except certain fan-trained or espalier-trained trees). We offer a discount on orders of multiple bare-root trees for delivery at the same time - this will be shown at the checkout.
Fan-trained and Espalier trees: Prices of these trees do NOT include delivery as these require special delivery arrangements - click here for details.
Delivery period: Pot-grown trees can be delivered from September onwards. Bare-root trees can be delivered from mid-November onwards. Within those periods you can specify your preferred month of delivery during the checkout process. It is best to order as soon as you can to ensure items are reserved for you.
*Mature heights: Height shown is the approximate height of the tree when mature (after 5-10 years), not the height when supplied. See photos of trees as supplied. Actual mature heights may vary considerably dependent on your local conditions and training and pruning regime.
Stock availability: Items showing as 'sold out' will probably be available again next season. If you would like to reserve in advance use our enquiry form - this does not commit you to anything.
Beth is self-sterile and needs to be pollinated by another tree of a different variety nearby. Since it flowers in the middle of the blossom season it can be pollinated by most other pear trees.
Our online pollination checker lists suitable pollination partners for this variety.
More advice about pollination.
Beth is a low-vigour variety, yet with a heavy cropping potential. This combination can lead to small fruit size, but this is readily addressed by thinning the fruitlets in late May - thinning is a particularly effective technique with Beth.
Beth comes into bearing quite young by the standards of most pears, you are likely to get some fruit within 2-3 years. However, be wary of letting it fruit too heavily too early, as this can slow further growth of the tree.
The picking season is starts at the end of August in the southern UK, a bit later further north. Keep a close eye on the crop at this stage, and pick the pears whilst they are still hard and ripen in a fruit bowl - they should not be ripened on the tree.
Beth is self-sterile so needs a pollination partner, but will be pollinated by a large number of other pear varieties.
Pears are generally more tolerant than apples to wet soils, but much less tolerant of drought conditions. Like all pears, Beth benefits from watering during the spring, as soon as the blossom starts to appear - if there is insufficient rain then apply 4-5 litres of water per day.
Planting instructions.
Pruning instructions.
Developed at the East Malling Research Station in the UK in the 1930s by Henry Tydeman (who also developed many apple varieties including Tydeman's Late Orange). Beth is a cross between Beurre Superfin and Williams' Bon Chretien.
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