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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe three reasons you should chop down your Bradford Pear trees
They are a staple of early spring and easy to spot: those puffy white Bradford pear trees. But once you get to know them, they are easy to hate.
Some central Virginia garden centers, like the Great Big Greenhouse and Cross Creek Nursery, dont even carry them any more. But they carry on in our landscape.
1. The first thing thats wrong with a Bradford pear is its structure.
They have huge heavy limbs that all radiate out from one point. That makes the tree exceptionally weak and prone to breakage once it matures. When high winds hit - or snow or ice - these trees come apart easily. Thats a lot of weight coming down on a person, car, roof, or even a power line.
2. The second (and biggest) problem? They are invasive and spreading.
Once you see the puffy white trees in early spring, youll see them everywhere. Originally from China, they dont have any threats here.
https://www.nbc12.com/2022/03/23/three-reasons-you-should-chop-down-your-bradford-pear-trees/
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Chop them down and give them to a wood turner or carver. The wood is beautiful, and pear wood is pear wood.
vlyons
(10,252 posts)Everyone was broken in a high wind storm. They are ornamental and don't bear fruit.
Jilly_in_VA
(9,852 posts)Read the article. Just because you can't see it doesn't mean they don't. Worse yet, if you have regular pear trees, they pollinate with them and ruin them.
enough
(13,235 posts)Ocelot II
(115,267 posts)but I've heard all about them from my brother, who lives in Zone 8. They fall apart, they're invasive and they stink, so who needs 'em? I can offer you all some buckthorn, though, which is invasive, pretty much immortal, and very prickly.
Jilly_in_VA
(9,852 posts)aka "paradise tree", which is ugly and stinks. It's another native of China and invasive as hell in both Virginia and Tennessee. It spreads by roots and is impossible to get rid of. And then there's kudzu, "the vine that ate the south". But at least goats will eat that. I knew someone who planted kudzu on purpose...in New Hampshire.
I have a beautiful bowl made of Bradford pear by one of the wood turners in our gallery. That's how I know the wood is gorgeous.
Ocelot II
(115,267 posts)They're dioecious, and the female trees produce fruit that smells like vomit. The good thing about them is that they grow fast, can tolerate the climate and city conditions, and they are attractive. The city tries to plant just male trees, but sometimes they get females, and the fruit falls on the sidewalk in late summer and stinks.
ms liberty
(8,478 posts)So they are growing everywhere.
Midnight Writer
(21,540 posts)Looked really nice for a year or so, until a couple of storms came along and took them all out.
Jilly_in_VA
(9,852 posts)you can save them by pruning them interiorly, but it's a lot of work, and at the end you still have a Bradford pear.
Liberal In Texas
(13,452 posts)Constantly having to remove broken or down limbs. Finally split pretty badly and leaned on the roof so we got rid of the whole tree. Replaced with a much nicer Shan Tung Maple.
LexVegas
(6,005 posts)Many already abandoning them for that reason.
bluedigger
(17,077 posts)Gonna let it die a natural death. It's well on it's way.
3catwoman3
(23,812 posts)Anytime there was a windy rainstorm, you could hear branches snapping like matchsticks throughout the whole development.
Retrograde
(10,068 posts)They were planted extensively in my section of California. Yeah, they have nice colorful fall foliage, but they drop spiky, round seedballs that are treacherous: they put one person I know in the hospital with a busted knee, and as I get older I find myself walking very carefully in their vicinity.
I_UndergroundPanther
(12,450 posts)I hate those fucking trees. I have back injuries don't like walking around the damn things.Add in ice and it's a whole nother level of treachery .Who in the hell thought " Why not plant these monkeyball trees that drop hard round seed balls that people can trip over and bust their ass wouldn't that be hilarious Ahem it would look nice...."?