I RECEIVED an e-mail from the ‘Duchess of Calbourne’, which is always an honour and a pleasure when she stoops down a couple of social notches to get in touch.

My former colleague, Susan Day, the self-styled duchess in question, queried the identity of an alien garden invader (pictured above) and whether she — or her chickens — could eat the ‘fruit’.

Advice was easy about a plant known as thorn apple, jimson weed or devil’s snare.

As a member of the deadly nightshade family — there’s a clue in that — it’s not one to be consumed, unless, that is, the Duchess or her chickens want intense, royally vivid hallucinations, followed by serious illness and possibly death.

Datura stramonium, to use its proper name, comes to us all from Central America.

I personally like this striking annual, with its white or purple trumpet flowers, followed by mace-like seed pods, but I can understand it’s not suitable for all gardens.

When immature, it can be grubbed out — wearing gloves — or treated with a systemic weedkiller.

The seed heads can be removed from mature specimens to stop it spreading.

They can be burned, added to green waste or deeply buried, with the rest of the plant added to the compost, where toxins will rapidly break down.

Meanwhile, Philip Lockyer queried why the lower leaves of his pear tree have browned off.

It doesn’t look like a case of serious disease — like fire blight or pear rust — but more likely wind scorch, combined with strong sunlight, too little water or too much fertiliser.

After leaf fall, I suggest taking the pear from its container, checking if it is root bound and making up a mix of one third garden soil, one third John Innes no.3 and one third grit, before either putting it back or choosing a larger pot.

Next year, Philip, choose a sheltered spot in partial shade, not full sun.

Isle of Wight County Press:

Philip's ailing pear.

Mary Case, a former Island high sheriff, expert apiarist and a woman whose gardening knowledge I very much respect, confirmed last week’s diagnosis of ‘watercore’ affecting the fruits of a reader’s tree — but a possible different cause.

Too much nitrogen in the soil can have the side effect of causing apple flesh to turn watery and honey sweet, but Mary says: “I think the problem Julia Richards is seeing in her apples is called ‘watercore’, or ‘glassiness’, as Brighstone apple guru, Bob Buckett, used to call it.

“He said it was a result of a long, hot and dry summer and I have found it in some of my apples this year — although the weather has been not all bad news.

“My Greensleeves and a James Grieve X Golden Delicious have really enjoyed the hot summer.”

Personally, I am very much looking forward to the first Rosemary Russets from the tree I bought last year from Deacons Nursery, Godshill.

Very much a matter of taste, but in my opinion it is the best eater.