Belle de Grand Lieu

Belle de Grand Lieu medlar tree produces large medlars, over 4 cm in diameter, with sweet, creamy and homogeneous flesh.

Medlars are eaten bletted, when the fruit has become very soft at its final stage of ripeness. They can be cut in half and eaten with a spoon, or pressed to extract the pulp.

The flavour is between apple and pear, close to an apple-pear compote, with additional aromas that can sometimes recall caramel.

The fruit is harvested and eaten from late October.

European medlars are very resistant to winter cold. Their very late flowering helps avoid late spring frosts, supporting regular cropping from year to year.

Belle de Grand Lieu is self-fertile, so a single tree can produce fruit.

This medlar usually grows as a shrub or small tree of around 3 m, depending on the planting site. It tolerates pruning well, has a naturally more spreading habit than apple and pear trees, and its ornamental foliage adds interest to the garden.

Belle de Grand Lieu is a fairly recent variety.

We graft and train our Mespilus germanica trees in the nursery, in open ground. They are then supplied bare-root, in several tree forms and on different rootstocks depending on availability.