The Mackenzie King Pear

A prime minister used to live where this pear is standing. Until 1923 William Lyon Mackenzie King rented at the Roxborough Apartments on Elgin Street, the grandest block in the city when it opened in 1910, and his diary is openly sentimental about the day he left it for Laurier House. The Roxborough came down in 1966 and Confederation Park was laid out over the site, so the smartest address in Ottawa is now lawn, memorials and one Ussurian pear. The species comes from the Russian Far East and northern China and is about as cold-hardy as pears get, which is why it is here and why most orchard pears are not. In early May it flowers hard, the whole crown white, ahead of nearly everything else in the park. Whether anything follows is a point the sources argue about: the capital's register says a stand-alone Ussurian pear sets no fruit because it depends on cross-pollination, while growers of the species describe it as at least partly self-fertile, with a second tree improving the crop rather than making it possible. Go for the blossom, and treat any small hard pears in autumn as a bonus. Its own age is unrecorded. The register names the tree, ties it to King's old address and stops there, which leaves the planting year open. Somebody watched it go in. If that was you, we would like the date.