Felsenbirne (copper rock pear) – care & cutting

The rock pear is a whole plant genus of its own with the botanical name Amelanchier, to which a total of 25 different species of rock pear belong. Like our apples and pears, this plant genus belongs to the pome fruit family. The beautiful botanical generic name “Amelanchier” already indicates: The beginning is the French (Provencal) name “amelanche” for the fruits of the rock pear, which simply means “apple” and comes from the Celtic-Gallic language area – it probably grew Rock pear even among the ancient Gauls, the first written mention that was found comes from 1549. In addition, there is the French appendix for tree, the “ier”, as well as the “pomme” (apple) a “pommier” (apple tree) ) arises.

The rock pears have seen better days in terms of their popularity, incomprehensible, because our ancestors showed good taste with their appreciation of the rock pears. So it is high time that this changed, because the rock pears have a lot to offer:

The rock pear – a wood with multiple uses

Rock pears grow as woody shrubs that initially cover themselves almost completely in spring with a veritable flood of enchanting filigree white flowers. Fruits ripen from these flowers, as small as blueberries, but even darker, one could say purple-black. These fruits are full of sweet, delicious aroma in early August, they can be picked fresh from the bush and eaten, but are also extremely tasty when dried, similar to raisins. In autumn the tree has another rich decoration to offer: its leaves turn exciting orange-red, making the rock pear a real eye-catcher.

The majority of the various species of the rock pear are native to North America and are still widespread today. Two species come from Asia, and only the above-mentioned common rock pear (Amelanchier ovalis) of the Celts and Gauls has its home in Central Europe. But this does not mean that other rock pears have not felt at home with us for a long time, a Swiss botanist described the Amelanchier lamarckii in his homeland as early as 1782, at the beginning of the 19th century it had conquered parts of northwest Europe as a fruit tree and came with the coped so well with climatic conditions that it was released into the wild. The North American bald pear (Amelanchier laevis) feels just as comfortable with us, and there are other rock pears from North America and Canada that also thrive here.

Caring for the rock pear

There is actually not much to say about caring for a rock pear, which experienced gardeners immediately love, because it suggests that it is a rather undemanding plant. The rock pear is really frugal, here its demands in bullet points:

• Rock pears grow pretty much anywhere, in the home garden or on rocky ground, if only the soil is loose and water-permeable.
• They like a location in the sun, but also thrive in partial shade, only in the shade the flowering decreases.
• Neither fertilizer nor additional watering are absolutely necessary for a well-rooted rock pear.
• However, the young plant is happy to have even watering during its first few weeks on site.
• Overwatering should be avoided and the young plant should no longer be exposed to noticeable waterlogging.
• Once the rock pear has taken its place, additional irrigation is only required in longer periods of heat.
• The rock pear overwinters outdoors without any problem even as a young plant, the species from North America are also used to a lot of cold.
• The rock pears can be planted in spring and autumn, in well-loosened soil, with a little watering.
• If an older plant wears down a bit, you can give it a low-key fertilization with a little compost and lime.

How easy a rock pear is to care for, however, essentially depends on how sustainably it was grown. If you order any rock pear over the Internet or buy it at the nearest garden discount, you have no way of checking the rearing conditions and pest-free delivery. There are even reports from experience reports that with such purchases not even the designated variety was in the pot.

Cutting the rock pears

Here, too, the rock pear is pleasantly frugal, because in case of doubt it does not need any pruning. It is actually very good for the rock pear not to be pruned, as this allows it to develop its full abundance of flowers. The rock pear is one of the few woody plants that develop a very decorative natural shape that is sufficiently compact for a home garden on its own, so it doesn’t even have to be cut into a basic shape in the first years of growth.

Only when your rock pear has many years “under its belt” at some point could it slowly become a little misshapen. Then you can get them back into shape by pruning, it doesn’t hurt if you regularly remove the oldest shoots beforehand. However, you can also let the rock pear age completely uncut and then treat it to a rejuvenating cut at some point: In this case, cut about half the branch mass to half in the first spring, and then the other half will be the next year.

The radical nature of this taper cut shows very well that the rock pear does not need to be pruned, but can be pruned very well if you want. Whether you want it, of course, also depends on where the rock pear is and what function it has in your garden:

Rock pears for hedges and bird protection hedges

As I said, there are several types of rock pear available in the local trade, and each has its own advantages. For the hedge or bird protection hedge that delimits your property, the copper rock pears or the common rock pears are best suited:

1. If you want to delimit your property with a cut hedge and opt for a copper rock pear, you will have a beautifully blooming hedge around the property in spring and bright colors in autumn. However, you should only opt for a rock pear if you can or would like to live with a somewhat more free growing hedge; the rock pear itself would be suitable for a military square cut, but you would cut the majority of the flowering shoots and thus one of the main advantages that led to the selection of the rock pear, simply cut away. The more freely the copper rock pear can develop its shoots, the more plentiful the BBBB and with it the harvest of the sweet fruits will be. If you want your hedge to stay rather low,
2. That is why the copper rock pear is also an excellent plant for a bird protection hedge around your property, if you want to harvest fruit yourself. A bird hedge is made up of various fruit-bearing hedge plants that are indigenous to the local ecological system. They provide branches and leaves, flowers and fruits to native birds and insects, which they use as food and / or breeding grounds. Bird protection hedges are allowed to grow freely, so that nest building is made easier and the woody plants offer birds and insects sufficient protection, and this growth form suits a copper rock pear very well.

If you would like to generously leave the fruits completely to the birds, you should opt for a common or common rock pear (Amelanchier ovalis): This only rock pear from Europe is also the one that is best accepted by our native fauna – it should be 21 Give bird species that feed on this rock pear.

The rock pear as a solitaire

A rock pear is also very good as a single shrub in the garden, in the right location and when raised correctly, it will grow into an exciting eye-catcher. Basically all of the rock pears offered by us are suitable for cultivation at a single location, each has its own advantages in terms of abundance and color of flowers, good taste and size of the fruits, vigor and overall size, you can use the overview of the varieties given below Pick out your favorite.

The only important thing when planting as a solitary shrub is that you choose a rock pear in the nursery that was already grown as a solitary shrub. Such a solitary plant already has enough space in the nursery, so it is grown at a considerable distance from its neighboring plants. In the case of a rock pear to be used as a solitary shrub, care was taken that the wood had developed enough shoots close to the ground, which develop side by side and evenly. This is the only way for this rock pear to grow in your garden as a splendid, balanced shrub that spreads luxuriantly on all sides.

The rock pear as a house tree

The rock pear is also often planted as a house tree, here too you can look for the variety from the overview below that best fits your garden with the expected total height and width and its other growth characteristics. Here you either look for a Heister in the tree nursery or pull a young rock pear yourself to a tree with a crown.

The rock pear as a fruit dispenser

As I said, the rock pear belongs to the pome fruit family, just like apples and pears, and thus to the group of really native fruit trees in our latitudes. This is all the more true if you keep in mind that there are not so many pome fruit plants that can be harvested here: In addition to the above, only the quinces (Cydonia) and now perhaps the chokeberries (Aronia) are among them well-known pome fruit plants. Medlars (Mespilus) and mountain ash (Sorbus) are also part of the indigenous pome fruit, but hardly enrich a fruit plate or jam jar (there is even more to discover here for fruit fans).

Scientists today suspect that an apple contains a huge amount (the numbers are constantly changing, several hundred in any case) of secondary plant substances; it looks similar with pears, and therefore it is certainly not too measured suspect that the rock pear also developed some of these miraculous substances – which, although not yet researched, are considered so useful that, according to an English proverb, “an apple a day keeps the doctor out of the house”.

In any case, apples and pears are among the tastes that we have a kind of basic trust in, and if we have had rock pears for ages, we should instinctively be familiar with this taste. Even if that shouldn’t be the case (many people had to rediscover quince jam) – it is certainly not a bad idea to add a rock pear to the fruit selection. If you value a rich harvest, the Amelanchier “Ballerina” rock pear is the best choice.

Overview of the varieties of rock pear offered.

In well-stocked nurseries, you can find several worries rock pears:

• European ear pear (Amelanchier spicata)
• Copper rock pear (Amelanchier lamarckii)
• Bald rock pear (Amelanchier laevis)
• Native European rock pear (Amelanchier ovalis)
• Rock pear Amelanchier “Ballerina”: Hybrid of A. laevis + A. lamarckii
• Canadian rock pear (Amelanchier alnifolia): Different hybrids
• Baumfelsenbirne (Amelanchier arborea „Robin Hill)

Each of these varieties has its own advantages, only the fruits taste good in almost all of them.

Conclusion
Whatever you expect from a rock pear in your garden, it will go along with it, all you have to do is choose the right variety. The fruits of most varieties are so delicious that you have to hurry to beat the birds when they are harvested, and knowledgeable healers not only make fruit yogurt or jam from the fruits, but also use them to lower blood pressure, relieve inflammation, or as a sleep regulator.