wanted: 2 bradford pear trees

We lost our house to Katrina and are buying a new home where it's high and dry. There are no trees in the yard. Does anyone have a couple of bradford pear trees to spare? I'll pay shipping. Thanks, julie

I'm guessing you're pulling our chain, but maybe you just don't know, so I'll bite:

Why not just buy the firewood pre-cut, instead of planting something that will disintegrate into firewood in a decade or so anyway? Bradford is one of the most awful trees anyone can plant. Besides, it's becoming invasive and no one wants that. Check out the "wild pears" thread on this forum.

There are a Gazillion wonderful trees you could plant in southern Mississippi. Please don't settle for one of the worst ones on the planet. If you need suggestions, I'm sure many of us could help. For starters, look at the "fragrant dogwood" thread.

Guy S.

Oops, mistake. Sorry about that. I thought you might be teasing a little bit but I see you may not be.

Say Julie, you might want to do a search right here in the Trees forum. Most of what was posted for a few others just recently will work for you. The thread started by berrygirl does have a few nice selections that you might like and they should work quite well in your region.

Here's the direct link-
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/564020/

I know Bradford Pears are really popular but you've been through enough hell in your life already to be planting one of those to have it possibly come down on your house where your family is sleeping some day 15 years down the road from now or so.


This message was edited Dec 28, 2005 8:29 PM

I just wanted something that would grow quickly for shade, have flowers and foilage for warm seasons, and be deciduous for cool seasons. I like the shape of Bradford Pears, so that's the first thing that came to mind. I have someone sending me dogwood trees, and I'd love to have a redbud tree (both of mine were killed by the salt water surge). Your help is greatly appreciated. Thanks, julie

Sure -- check out those other threads for ideas, and good luck with your new plantings. I'm glad we were able to "save" someone from going down the path to Bradford Purgatory! That usually doesn't happen until about 10 years too late, when they come back to ask why their tree is falling apart or why it's sending out zillions of thorny volunteer seedlings to suffocate the surrounding natural landscape.
Guy S.

Hey Julie,

Here's an exerpt from this link-
http://www.grownative.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=about.articleDetail&articleID=24

"Trees are divided into tall trees, called canopy types and short trees often referred to as ornamentals. Missouri has many great native candidates of both types from which to choose.

If you're looking for a large-growing, deciduous tree for summer shade, think about one of our oaks—northern red, bur or swamp white to name a few—that also offer a reliable food source to turkey and small mammals. If fall color is also important, a native red maple, green ash or sweet gum could fill the bill when chilly fall temperatures give leaves a new palette of warm reds, oranges and golden yellow.

Native ornamental trees, usually 10 to 50 feet in height, can add seasonal interest with flowers like the witch hazel, fringe tree, red buckeye, serviceberry or Virginia sweetspire. Some offer wildlife abundant and tasty fruits such as Indian cherry, pawpaw, and green hawthorn. Some ornamentals prefer a shady location similar to where you would find them in a natural understory setting. Others that would normally be found on a savanna or at the edge of a prairie or glade will flourish in a sunnier spot."

My only comment would be to skip the suggestion of planting a Green Ash, not a good idea for a multitude of reasons mainly Emerald Ash Borer. The other suggestions were good and solid.

Julie, The suggestion above for a Sweetgum sounds good to me. I'm partial to them. 18 years ago I planted 2 of them in the front of my new home.
They have great color in the fall, their leaves have an evergreen scent when crushed, too. The bark has great cork like threads on young branches, they grow about 3 feet per year and have few pest problems.
Try to get a variety that is nearly fruitless, they do drop prickly walnut size fruit in Fall/Winter.
Here is a pic from this Fall. You can trim the lower branches to enjoy the shade.
Andy P

Thanks. I went to the National Arbor Day Foundation and joined. They're sending me 10 flowering trees that include dogwoods and redbuds. Thanks for all the help. Julie

You know those little trees are going to be about a foot tall at best? I have some now a year old and they might be ready to go into their spots in a year or two more. How ever the trees they sell in on their site are great little trees and stand tall - they grow great in the garden and I have several all around the garden doing great. In fact I have 4 new ones that just got here and they are great again - the free ones I just chunked this year into the compost pile to start with and bought the trees I wanted.

okfine

Happy New year! Love, Julie

Hey Julie, Good luck with the Dogwoods you're being sent as well as all the other plants. It's tough starting over but it all comes together in no time at all. You will lose some (we all do), unfortunately that goes with the territory but don't let it get you down.

A Happy and Healthy New Year back at you!
Lauren

Hey, anybody want to see a photo of a Redbud that I got from Arbor Day in Spring 02'? It is now about 10 feet tall and doing very well in my Mom's back-yard. I think the trunk is about 3 inches in diameter.
It started out as a stick. This photo is almost a year old, it has had another growing season since. It isn't all supprted up now. My mom was just trying to train it more into her yard which it is doing now.

They come so small from Arbor Day, you have to protect them if they are planted out. This is the only one that survived, I think the other 9 "free" trees succumbed to neglect or a lawnmower perhaps.
Oh yeah, one crab-apple also survived, it is at my Aunt and Uncle's house, is about 6 feet tall and doing well, so only 8 of them succumbed.

Will

http://photobucket.com/albums/v243/w4i0a/?action=view¤t=Dsc04641.jpg

Although I've never ordered from them (check out their rating here on Dave's), I understand that the folks who seem to have had the best luck with the tiny trees potted them up in big plastic nursery-type containers for a couple of years before planting them out.

Bradford Pear trees....why me!!!! I have heard nothing good about Bradford Pears, course I bought 4 before I found DG. I live in a mild climate and don't get real harsh winds but I have heard that since Bradford Pears do not have a central leader (trunk) you can trim them to reduce the chances of breakage. I know I know...everyone hates them, but wondering (since I already have them), has anyone ever pruned them?

I also heard the scent of the flowers it gives in the spring can only be described as foul.

Grrr...what else could go wrong? DON'T TELL ME! Hehe.

I have one now, & it's lovely in the spring. The flowers on it have no scent whatsoever. Mine also definitely has a central leader. It was the base graft for a fruiting pear that succumbed to fire blight.As far as how long-lived it will be, only time will tell.

Breezy,

Sigh, you made my day!!! Finally, someone who has something good to say about the Bradford. I'm driving my husband nuts talking about the bad things I've heard of it. No smell, that's good! I had read online they live 25-30 years. Have you ever pruned yours?


This message was edited Jun 2, 2006 4:35 PM

Not yet. Like I said, we lost our fruiting pear to fire blight, & were going to cut the whole thing down, but allowed what remained to sprout & grow. It's now about 20-30 feet tall, & in the spring is breathtaking.

While I have cut suckers from the bottom, we haven't done any true pruning, but I'll probably do some pruning/shaping during this next coming fall/winter dormant season.

Aimee, that rootstock breezy has is not the cultivar Bradford, but simply a seedling Callery (or Ussurian) pear. Most of them revert to a thorny mess, but breezy might have been lucky.

If you have Bradfords (the true, grafted ones) and really wish to keep them despite the threat of them becoming invasive in your area, you need to maintain the central leader but thin the competing branches that emerge from that leader in clusters.

As for smell, they have a bad reputation but I don't notice them -- I don't notice the foul smell of chestnut flowers either, so that doesn't say much. Regardless, the more I see of the increasing invasiveness of Callery pears, the more I dread them.

Guy S.

The smell is like an asphalt plant. SB

I have two fruiting pears and the blossoms have kind of a vomit smell to me.

LOL! Too much! Good thing I have a poor sense of smell I guess. What does everyone mean they become invasive? Isn't mowing over the area enough to tend around them??? It's only a first home for me anyways so I won't have them long.

Well, this was written about 6 years ago and they've definitely made their presence known since then but try this link for nice bedtime reading material-
http://www.agnr.umd.edu/ipmnet/5-8art1.htm

Alamoaimee:

Take a brief read over here to understand what is meant by invasiveness; the term DOES NOT mean just weedy or an occasional sprout. Guy, EQ, and others do not use the term lightly.

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/575124/

TX is blessed with a plethora of conditions for growing myriad plants. You can select from a world of more wonderful things than (IMHO) just another callery pear.

Use Extirpation's mantra:

The solution to pollution is immolation.

ViburnumValley.

Thanks ya'll for the tips and sites. Sigh. I am so sad. You know how Home Depots get an avalanche of these Bradfords for sale each spring? Yeah, well, DON'T LAUGH (hehe) but they had 40 gallon pears for $289 each. There is no detailed information on them. But did see a guy load up 10 of them, take them to checkout talking about all the pears he was gonna get, cashier said they don't fruit. Guy was mad and walked off! HA! So thanks for the education, get the word out!!!!!!!!!!!

So when I went back they had been clearanced (end of season) and I got 4 trees, 80 bucks each. Mostly I wanted a fast growing tree that was a good price because my new neighborhood has NO trees and NO privacy.

Of course I have thought of "solutions" since then but now they are in the ground and have been a year....sigh....wondering if I should bite the bullet and consider them a loss and take them out? *UGH

If you already have made the investment; and

If there are already billions of them planted in your neighborhood anyway; and

If you can manage somehow to prune them into decent trees; and

If you're not too concerned about maybe having to replace them (i.e. start over) in 10-20 years; and

If you really do like them and can tolerate the smell; and

If they are not proving to be invasive in natural areas in your vicinity (or there are no natural areas within bird-flight distance); then --

Keep them, but sleep with the worry and guilt every night.

Guy S.

I do hope you're just kidding when you suggest that anyone here should "sleep with the worry and guilt every night" over a gardening issue - invasive or not.

And if...and if...and if...that goes on forever.

I could be preachy and talk at length about things that used to be commonplace but with knowledge are no longer practiced (use of lead-based paint, pouring used motor oil into storm drains, etc.) but worry and guilt are self-sustaining so I'll leave that to others.

AA:

Your heart (love of plants) seems in the right place, and your head is getting crammed with info from here and elsewhere. Select good long term planting prospects, and eliminate the short term gratification as soon as tolerable. Minimize damage off-site by your choices, and set a good example to those around you who may yet be unreconstructed.

One of my goals is to have everyone around here plant a heritage tree such as bur oak, blue ash, chinkapin oak (or the like) for every pear (or other overused under-long-lived species) that they have. Then, there's no excuse for eventually (or instantly!) deleting the potential pestilence and promoting posterity.

Don't feel bad alamoaimee. We all have fallen victim to the seemingly "great buy". I still have one here because my husband begged to keep it for shade while he was barbecuing. He made a big scene hugging that tree when we had a bunch of guests over and then he hung birdhouses in it to make me feel guilty about even thinking about taking that last one down. I have planted a Kentucky Coffee Tree to the right of it and something else to the left of it (forgot and am not going out in my bathrobe to look as it's only 8º outside right now). My husband has watched me dig out and burn so many plants that we've purchased that we lost count but that one tree he told me to please please please wait to nuke until we had something else going so he could have some shade in the summer when he was on the patio. I told him it would come down in about 2 years and that was all I could allow it to stay in the ground in good conscience. If that trees falls over to the north- it hits my big screened in porch. If it falls to the southeast, it will do major damage to my Downy Hawthorn. If it falls to the northeast, it will do damage to a huge above ground sandbox. If it falls to the southwest, it hits my brand new hip wall around my patio. If it falls to the west, it hits my family room where my children play and these trees are not exactly sturdy specimens and they do come down and cost insurance companies millions and millions of dollars in property damage annually. So, in addition to their invasiveness, they aren't the safest tree to have growing any where near any structure. Let's face it, my last remaining Callery will do a lot of damage on the way down unless it falls to the east and we all know how that goes. A tree when it goes, doesn't ever seem to take the path of least resistance. The tree has two years and that's it and that's only because my husband begged and pleaded to extend its life for personal gain. I have removed all of the others from the property and it hurt doing it because they were established and they had nice blooms in the spring that didn't emit skunk smells too bad because they were far away from my house.

Unless you have a husband who is begging for the mercy of one of them until you can get something else established in the near vicinity, I'd have to encourage you to go with your gut feelings and bite the bullet and get em all out now before they get too much bigger and these buggers grow fast.

For hundreds of years we humans have been enamored with that which we deemed exotic from lions and tigers and bears oh my... right on down to the plants we choose for our gardens. Here are a few other plants and most are mass marketed to appeal to our longing for something exotic that is bigger, better, showier, and hence very popular that you might want to steer clear of-

Camphor tree (Cinnamomum camphora)
Siberian Elm (Ulmus pumila)
Russian Olive (Eleagnus angustifolium)
Autumn Olive (Eleagnus umbellata)
Brazilian pepper (Schinus terebinthifolius)
Norway Maple (Acer platanoides)
Melaleuca (Melaleuca quinquenervia),
Sawtooth Oak (Quercus acutissima)
White Mulberry (Morus alba)
Tree Of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima)
Mimosa Tree (Albizia julibrissin)
Empress or Princess Tree (Paulownia tomentosa)
Buckthorn (Rhamnus spp.)
Chinese tallow tree (Sapium sebiferum)
Burning Bush (Euonymus alata)
Multiflora Rosa (Rosa multiflora)
Silverthorn (Elaeagnus pungens)
Privet (Ligustrum spp.)
Japanese Spirea (Spiraea japonica)
Japanese Barberry (Berberis thunbergii, actually all Barberry)
Japanese Honeysuckle (Lonicera spp.)
Giant Asian Dodder (Cuscuta japonica Choisy)
Oriental Bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus)
Chinese Wisteria (Wisteria sinensis)
Japanese Wisteria (Wisteria floribunda)
Porcelain Berry (Ampelopsis brevipedunculata)
Kudzu (Pueraria lobata)
Chinese Yam (Dioscorea oppositifolia)
English Ivy (Hedera helix)
Periwinkle (Vinca minor & V. major)

Bamboo, all of it

I did a quick search and looks as if your State has a really neat website-
http://www.texasinvasives.org/
All Calleryana Pears are showing up on that list.

I don't know if you have a pond but if you do, you might find this interesting-
http://www.ntwgs.org/articles/illegalAquatics.html

Best wishes to you,
Equil or what ever the E name du jour is ;)

Oops, I was typing my little fingers away and missed something. To plant or not to plant a Calleryana Pear is not a simple gardening issue any longer and hasn't been for quite a while. To save myself time, I'm just cutting and pasting something from another thread that I wrote a while ago,

Now that's a lady on a mission!

No, after a while it just gets old seeing native birds desperately trying to eek out sustenance while species such as the English House Sparrow and the European Starling are not only surviving but thriving thanks to the buffet of plants they co-evolved with now being offered over here on North America. Every spring and every fall I find a few dead songbirds here and there that just couldn't make it and I can't help but wonder...

Equilibrium

thanks for your research! i totally agree about the mass marketed plants. that's why i won't be buying just whatever a home depot has in stock. funny about your husband,,,hugging the tree! lol! too funny.

Breezymeadow

mega thanks for your last comment. geez....people get so worked up on the subject of bradford pears! who'd a thunk it. i'm not losing sleep, just learning. i think you have all just saved thousands from certain drama by informing the public how repulsive bradfords can be. =) i wish i'd never heard of them!!!

i wasn't really impatient about having something grow big and strong in no time at all. it was just a great price. i don't plan on being in this home long so i'd never have the pleasure of seeing a tree reach maturity anyways. it was just a good price on what i'd thought was a good buy.

Equilibrium - we have the Aristocrat and love it's white springtime flowers as well as the robins who flock to it in December for the fruit. There is no odor and we have no problems with it despite Guy's concern over it. Even on vacant lots there are no signs that any are growing.

We have pruned off the lower branches with no ill effects. I'd buy it again except for one fault - the suckers are miserable to deal with and should be ripped off, not cut off, but you must wear leather gloves to do it. Once a year isn't bad for the shade and beauty and food it supplies.

Be careful with Bradford Pears. They have very weak crotch angles and the limbs can just break off. It happened right in my front yard 10 minutes after I walked under the tree. Scary!!! If you do choose this tree, make sure an arborist prunes them for you and takes out the criss crossing limbs.

Mary, using an aborist will help alleviate some of the problems then?

Ok. One last stupid question for the uneducated buyer here.

Am I to understand that within the Bradford Pear there are many varieties? (i.e. Aristocrat and Calleryana). It would seem to explain why about a third of you say it's alright, their's doesn't smell and the other half think it smells like "vomit." If this is the case I'll just have to see which kind I got.

After this I'll shut up about it. Promise!

Bradford is one cultivar of Pyrus calleryana, and the one most commonly planted early on. Now that other cultivars are gaining prominance (due in part to the structural problems with Bradford) the cross-pollionation may be what's triggering the suddenly explosive seedling recruitment in some areas.

I just read the pages regarding the Callery Pear in the book, The Tri-State Gardener's Guide by Ralph Snodsmith who hosts a Sunday morning radio show from New York City each Sunday. He has absolutely nothing negative to say about it. I'll trust him and his 40 years of knowledge anytime.

Well, since I'm the one at "fault," don't count on any apologizes from me for planting them. It seems I keep hearing 2 viewpoints on it. Perl: THANK-YOU!!! That's what I'm talking about.

While I was uninformed when I purchased them I certainly didn't have anyone ranting about their downsides. If the general public is unawares maybe someone should educate them. I can only continue to learn more as I inquire.

This message was edited Feb 19, 2006 7:32 PM

Please listen to the hearts of these people in this forum. They have no ax to grind: no business, no egos ('not me' syndrome), they acknowledge mistakes (their own). All look long term. The experts you seek are here and they have spoken.