Our Variety Assessment

Its strengths, growing requirements and the conditions in which it performs best.

Seigneur Esperen, also known as Belle Lucrative or Fondante d’Automne, fully deserves its reputation as a dessert pear. The flesh becomes melting, exceptionally juicy, sweet and lightly musky, without pronounced acidity. We would pick it while firm and check it daily while ripening. It offers excellent quality in early autumn but has only a short storage life.

Seigneur Esperen

Price range: 26,50 € through 59,75 €

An old fashioned French pear with a notably sweet flavour.

Pre-orders are open

No payment today. You are reserving your trees before the inventory in early August.

After inventory, we will confirm the available trees and send you a payment link.

Dispatch generally takes place from late November to February, depending on the weather and the progress of lifting the trees.

Choose your tree form

1 year old grafted tree – approx. 1–2 m

Half-standard – 1 to 1.5 m stem

Low-stem tree – approx. 60 cm stem

Standard tree – 1.8 m stem and over

Pear rootstock options

Kirchensaller – approx. 6 m mature height

Pyrodwarf – approx. 4 m mature height

Quince BA29 – approx. 3 m mature height

Clear

Tree size guide

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SKU: 14949 Categories: Dessert pear trees, Pear trees

Description

Fondante d’Automne is a traditional French late-season pear variety with a sugary sweet flavour, very typical of the dessert pears which became fashionable in Europe in the 1830s. It soon became popular in England and the Americas – it is described by the English fruit enthusiast Robert Hogg, writing in the 1880s as “a delicious autumn pear”.

The fruits are of medium size, usually covered with a light russet, and they have a fine-grained buttery flesh.

For best results, as with most pears, pick the fruits before they are fully ripe on the tree and ripen in a fruit bowl.

Variety characteristics

Variety origin

Old Belgian variety bred in 1827 by Major Esperen in Mechelen.

Origin

Period of origin

USDA zone

Flowering

Harvest period

Eating / keeping period

Use

Sweetness / acidity

Disease resistance

Self-fertility

Pollinator value

Ploidy

Origin and identity

Parentage

Exact parents unknown

Synonyms

Belle Lucrative, Beurré Lucratif

Growth and adaptation

Vigour and habit

Medium to strong vigour, rather weak growth on quince

Disease behaviour

Scab

Medium susceptibility to scab, variable depending on location

Pollination

Compatible pollinating varieties

For reliable fruit set, plant at least one variety with a compatible flowering period nearby. Flowering period: 4 - late.

Passe-Crassane View this variety

Triompe de Vienne View this variety

Beurre Hardy View this variety

Clapp’s Favorite View this variety

Concorde View this variety

Legipont View this variety

Harvest calendar

Extend your harvest season

Discover varieties from the same category harvested just before, at the same time or just after.

About 15 days earlier

September 1-15

Pierre Corneille View this variety

Dell’Auzzana View this variety

At the same time

September 15-30

Conference View this variety

Red Anjou View this variety

President Heron View this variety

Additional variety information for Seigneur Esperen is provided in partnership with Orange Pippin.