Cor blimey! luv-a-duck apples-and-pears…

The Wild Pear, Pyrus pyraster, blooming at Kew (above)

Pyrus nivalis the Snow Pear, flowering in front of a group of Amelanchier (above)

Amelanchier intermedia (above)

Malus Laxton’s Red (above and below)

Malus Robert’s Crab (above)

Malus baccata Jackii (above)

Malus halliana (above)

Malus Laxton’s Red (above)

and the ‘duck’ in question…

Crab-apples and wild pears in bloom this week in the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, together with a respectable collection of Amelanchiers, the snowy mespilus or Juneberry.

The flowering cherries are the divas of the day of course; big, flamboyant bouffant blossoms in shades of white and pink. The wild pears are altogether more.. wild with single flowers though in great profusion. Crab-apples give us white, pink and crimson – much deeper colours and a welcome contrast. Amelanchiers have starry white blossom set against the pale bronze emerging leaves.

I rather like the ‘double’ cherries, but I would rather have them in a parkland setting like this, or used as street-planting where they can be very effective, or in some-one else’s garden. The crab-apples, amelanchier and wild pear (if space allowed) I would have at home.