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Perry pear trees

Pear cider or Perry is an increasingly popular drink, produced from traditional perry pear trees.

  • Blakeney Red

    Blakeney Red perry pear trees
    A popular perry pear, and one of the most reliable croppers. Produces a medium-tannin juice.
    • Picking season: Late
    • Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 3

  • Brandy

    Brandy perry pear trees
    A mid-season English perry pear which produces a low-tannin juice.
    • Picking season: Late
    • Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 3

  • Gin

    Gin perry pear trees
    A rare English perry pear variety with good disease resistance and medium acid and tannins.
    • Picking season: Very late
    • Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 3

  • Green Horse

    Green Horse perry pear trees
    A traditional Gloucestershire perry pear, which produces a low tannin perry.
    • Picking season: Late
    • Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 5

  • Hendre Huffcap

    Hendre Huffcap perry pear trees
    A well-known English perry pear variety, and a reliable cropper. Makes a light, low-tannin perry.
    • Picking season: Late
    • Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 3

  • Judge Amphlet

    Judge Amphlet perry pear trees
    A popular English perry pear variety producing a light, low-tannin juice.
    • Picking season: Early
    • Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 1

  • Thorn

    Thorn perry pear trees
    An ancient pear variety from Gloucestershire, now used mainly for perry production.
    • Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 3

  • Winnals Longdon

    Winnals Longdon perry pear trees
    A traditional Herefordshire perry pear variety, produces a low tannin perry.
    • Picking season: Late
    • Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 3

  • Yellow Huffcap

    Yellow Huffcap perry pear trees
    Yellow Huffcap is a well-known English perry pear.
    • Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 3

How to choose Perry pear trees

Perry is a traditional drink made from fermented pear juice, and in recent years has enjoyed a resurgence in interest, along with its cousin cider. Perry is now sometimes called pear cider and although this is incorrect, the term seems to have made it more accessible to consumers.

As with cider apples, perry pears are used specifically for the qualities of their juice and cannot be eaten.

Perry pears are closely related to mainstream pears, and will cross-polinate with them, and both are classified in the species Pyrus communis. However it is likely that perry pears are a distinct sub-species.

If grown on seedling rootstocks perry pears can be very long-lived, as well as growing to a considerable height and spread.

Perry production has a very long history in England, but has tended to be less widespread than cider production, and until recently the vast majority of perry orchards were to be found in a small area of western England, mainly in Gloucestershire. Perry pears are also grown in the traditional French cider growing areas, but the French drink is produced in a different way to English perry.