The three reasons you should chop down your Bradford Pear trees

[Jilly_in_VA]

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, don’t even carry them any more. But they carry on in our landscape.

1. The first thing that’s 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. That’s 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, you’ll see them everywhere. Originally from China, they don’t 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]

1. I planted bradfords on my ranch

Everyone was broken in a high wind storm. They are ornamental and don't bear fruit.

[Jilly_in_VA]

4. They do too bear fruit

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]

8. Unfortunately they do, which is part of the reason they're so invasive. NT

[Ocelot II]

2. Fortunately the damn things won't grow here in Zone 4,

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]

6. I'll see you that and raise you some alanthus

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]

9. We've got gingko trees, which are also Chinese natives that stink.

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]

3. I hate these things. Now they've naturalized here in NC

So they are growing everywhere.

[Midnight Writer]

5. They were planted all along the boulevard in new sub-division near me.

Looked really nice for a year or so, until a couple of storms came along and took them all out.

[Jilly_in_VA]

7. If you really want to

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]

10. There was one in the front yard of the house we bought.

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]

11. People in this part of VA always complaining of them getting blown over.

Many already abandoning them for that reason.

[bluedigger]

12. Have a very old one out in the back yard.

Gonna let it die a natural death. It's well on it's way.

[3catwoman3]

13. Our neighborhood in Maryland had them everywhere.

Anytime there was a windy rainstorm, you could hear branches snapping like matchsticks throughout the whole development.

[Retrograde]

14. Can we get rid of the Liquidambers as well?

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]

15. you mean those damn monkeyball trees?

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...."?