Tree of the Week - Entry 1 - July 2026
🎧 Listen to this article (narrated by Emma):
Slow, unhurried, a bit gnarled by the time it's grown up. Rather like the best gardeners I know. The medlar doesn't shout for attention in July - the flowers are long gone, and the real theatre is still months off. But walk under one now and there it is: small, hard, green fruit sitting quietly on the branches, each one wearing that strange open-ended crown of sepals at its tip. It's a genuinely odd bit of fruit architecture, unlike anything else you'll find in a British garden, and it's sitting there right now for anyone who wants to look. The RHS, writing about the tree's history, noted that the nickname Chaucer gave that peculiar fruit shape has stuck - which tells you something about how long this tree has been lodged in the British imagination.
Mespilus germanica belongs to the rose family, Rosaceae, a cousin to hawthorns and to Amelanchier. 'Nottingham' is the cultivar most gardeners mean when they say medlar - the default British commercial variety, the old workhorse of the group, prized less for the biggest fruit than for reliability. It carries the RHS Award of Garden Merit, and it has been grown in British orchards since the medieval period, only falling from fashion as sugar and other fruit became easier to come by.
Beneath the soil
Most medlars you'll buy aren't on their own roots at all. They're grafted - usually by chip budding - onto either hawthorn or quince stock, and the choice of rootstock matters more than people expect. Quince A gives a semi-vigorous tree, Quince C keeps things properly dwarf and manageable. On Quince A, a young 'Nottingham' will typically start cropping within three to four years rather than making you wait a decade. Grafted trees on quince rootstock settle at 4-6 metres tall and wide at maturity - a sensible size for most Surrey gardens.
Like most Rosaceae, the medlar forms a working relationship with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in the soil. That's one more reason not to plant into bare, sterile ground and expect fireworks. Give the roots a moderately fertile, well-drained soil to colonise, mulch rather than feed hard, and let that underground partnership do some of the work. The tree sits in RHS pruning group one - formative pruning is genuinely light, little beyond removing crossing or damaged wood once the framework is established. It's not a tree that rewards fussing.
Practical use
The classic use is culinary, and it's a proper autumn and winter job. Fruit is left on the tree until after frost, then picked hard and stored until it blets - softening and browning into something with a flavour somewhere between spiced apple sauce and toffee. Most people don't eat it fresh; it goes into medlar jelly or medlar cheese, both of which have a genuine following among people who've bothered to try them.
Ornamentally, it earns its place in a cottage or informal garden. The white late-spring flowers are good for bees, the autumn colour is honestly lovely, and the gnarled, twisting habit as the tree matures gives it real character in a border where everything else is straight lines and clipped shapes. Birds will take the fruit once it's soft, so it does a proper job for wildlife too.
Full sun is preferable - it will grow in light shade but cropping suffers for it. The flowers come late enough in spring to usually dodge frost, but they dislike strong, drying winds, so a spot with some shelter serves better than an exposed corner. Moderately fertile, well-drained soil suits it well, and it copes with Surrey's heavier clay better than many fruit trees, as long as it isn't sitting wet all winter.
Care and common mistakes
Worth doing:
- Choose the rootstock with the eventual space in mind - Quince A for a full-sized garden tree, Quince C where space is tighter.
- Mulch generously around the base, especially in the first few years, to support the mycorrhizal partnership and retain moisture.
- Leave the fruit on the tree until after the first proper frost before picking.
- Give it a sheltered position - near a wall, a hedge, or established planting - to protect the blossom from drying winds.
- Prune lightly and only to remove crossing or damaged wood once the framework is set.
Worth avoiding:
- Don't pick the fruit early because it looks ripe - hard and bitter off the tree, it needs bletting before it's worth eating.
- Don't plant into waterlogged ground; it tolerates clay but will not tolerate standing water through winter.
- Don't feed hard with high-nitrogen fertiliser - moderate fertility suits it, and excess feeding pushes growth at the expense of fruit.
- Don't expect fast results and get disheartened - this is a slow, patient tree, and the reward is measured in decades rather than seasons.
Context and companions
It sits comfortably in the same family conversation as hawthorn and Amelanchier, so it doesn't look out of place near either. In a cottage garden setting it works well underplanted with spring bulbs, which flower and fade before the medlar's own late blossom takes over. It's a reasonable companion for other fruit trees, though it's worth keeping it clear of anything that wants consistently moist ground, since medlar prefers not to sit wet. As a specimen tree on its own - in a lawn or a gravel garden where its eventual spreading, twisted shape has room to develop - it's hard to beat. W. J. Bean described it as having a "picturesque habit", and that's as good a two-word summary as any.
Questions people actually ask
The question that comes up most is about fruiting: why hasn't it cropped yet? The honest answer is patience. Young grafted trees on Quince A typically need three to four years before a decent crop shows up. That's not a long time in a tree's life, but it can feel long when you're waiting.
There's also persistent confusion with the loquat, sometimes sold historically as the Japanese medlar. They're not related - the loquat is Eriobotrya, a different genus entirely. The shared name is a coincidence of old common usage, nothing more.
People sometimes wonder whether they need two trees for pollination. They don't. 'Nottingham' is self-fertile; one tree is enough for a good crop. And when the crop does come, the question shifts to whether it can be eaten straight from the branch. Not really, and not with any pleasure - it needs bletting, the softened stage that follows frost or extended storage, before the flesh is worth the effort. Pick it too soon and you'll wonder what all the fuss is about. Leave it be, and the fuss turns out to be entirely justified.
If the Nottingham Medlar has caught your attention, come and see it for yourself. Our team at Cedar Nursery in Cobham, Surrey can help you choose the right rootstock for your space and talk you through everything you need to get one established well. Some trees are worth the wait - this is one of them.
Come and stand under it. Cedar Nursery, Cobham, Surrey.