Let's start a list of Calleryana Pear cultivars to share

I'll start with the most obvious-

Bradford
Chanticleer
Redspire
Cleveland Select
Autumn Blaze
Aristocrat

dwk001 added these-
Capital
Stone Hill
Earlyred
Princess
Pzazz
Rancho
Trinity
Whitehouse

I think once we get a list I'll put them all in alphabetical order.

This message was edited Jan 28, 2006 3:51 PM

Who do you want to share them with?
Let's see, now who could it be?
Could it be . . . SATAN?

Guy S.

Dear sweet Guy! You know why I want to share a list of the cultivars so part with a few names buddy. Let's list them out. Lately, I'm seeing these plants being sold as merely 'Cleveland Select' Pear with no mention of the Latin name so people purchasing them are totally clueless as to what they just bought. It's real difficult to look up a plant with merely the name of the cultivar particularly when so many cultivars are being released and often all people come up with in a search are nurseries selling it at their websites with big splashy photos of these things in bloom with catchy comments that make people lust for even more of these plants.

Don't forget Pyrus calleryana 'Ad Nauseam'

Silly you, no pet names allowed... registered cultivars only.

Let's just be CRYSTAL CLEAR for anybody coming across this post in search of some fast growing shade tree to plant this spring.

I don't think you'll find a serious tree person, arborist or novice (like me), who recommends pear cultivars. Plant something else! How about we start a list of pear substitutes. Let's see. What do people want?

Fast growing.
Shade tree.
Flowers, preferably white.

Ok everybody, what's your recommended substitute? I'll start:

Serviceberry.

In zone 7 or higher the "Natchez" crape myrtle is often used instead of callery pear. It is a bit overused but it's still a better choice.

Hey you guys, this really was intended as a thread to help people identify which cultivars are being unleashed on the unsuspecting public so that people can steer clear of them if they so desire. I have no great love of anything Calleryana... trust me on this one. I think people who choose to plant them who are aware of their "dark side" are capable of choosing considerably more environmentally friendly plants IF… they can identify what they are buying and planting as being a Calleryana which is getting to be quite difficult these days. The Calleryana Pears that I had here were removed and burned quite a few years ago. Several had grown quite large and did look very nice and I miss them. Given all that I have learned about them, allowing them to continue growing on my property was deemed by me to be blatantly irresponsible. One more Callery can and does make a difference particularly when these monsters are so darn popular like Burning Bushes and a host of other plants that seem to have some sort of magnetic appeal/fatal attraction to people who keep buying them.

I'd like nothing more than to see Callery Pears formally identified as the noxious weed they are here and banned in the State of Illinois but the green industry here keeps screaming economic ruin. To be quite blunt, I have been removing so many of these from natural areas where I volunteer that I have a real bad taste in my mouth for them yet I can see the day coming when volunteers alone will not be able to keep up with the offspring of Callery Pears being planted in unprecedented numbers in people's landscapes. When that time comes, the tax payer will get saddled with the clean up bill...yet again. All this time and expense so that these plants can continue to be sold at a profit by nurseries across the nation? I'm really sorry but Calleryana Pears are beyond invasive and they are destroying natural areas and it costs all of us.

Please take a moment to read what I wrote about Callery Pears here-
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/563787/
The post dated Dec 24, 2005 at 12:37 AM has the most information in it which may help a few understand that I most assuredly do not sanction or condone the planting on North American soil of anything Calleryana. They're hybridizing people, we need to consider removing as many as we can get our hands on. If you scroll down to Dec 24, 2005 at 1:25 AM, there’s a little bit more for clarification as to why I decided to start a thread identifying as many Calleryana Pear cultivars as was possible.

Here are the names of a few more Calleryana cultivars-
Autumn Blaze
Aristocrat

Many of the older callery pears in my area were either blown over or blown apart in hurricane Ivan. Sadly, many of them are being replaced because they continue to be sold in nurseries. Hurricanes may be the only thing that is going to keep these things in check here. Maybe people will get tired of replanting them eventually. I have noticed that there have not been any more planted on city property, it's all in peoples yards where I have seen them replanted.

Equilibrium, here are a few more callery cultivar names from Dirr (5th Ed., 1998):

Capital
Stone Hill=Chanticleer=Select=Cleveland Select
Earlyred (Dirr says there's one of these at Berheim Arboretum where I think Viburnum Valley works)
Princess
Pzazz
Rancho
Trinity
Whitehouse

As an aside, I don't think I've ever seen as much fruit left on the callery pears around town in previous years by this point in winter as I've seen this year--great quantities of fruits now being smashed on sidewalks and streets, with their copious little seeds inside.

dwk001:

I know and love Bernheim; I've served on their horticultural advisory committee for many years. Alas, I work up the street for Louisville Metro Parks. Well, it's not so bad at that.

Bernheim has more than a few Pyrus calleryana, but their staff are aware of the invasiveness potential of all their non-native plants and are diligently working to reduce and/or eliminate these problems so that the 14,000 acres of natural areas do not suffer needless trauma.

I have intermittently read of another selection called 'New Bradford' (I don't know if it is simply a named clone or if it rates a ©, ®, or ™ alongside).

EQ: can we get you to rate the firewood qualities of each clone? Might as well extirpate and burn the most fragrant ones first (or the ones that make the best chips for smoking meats/fish on the grill).

You got me on that one. We've pretty much hand pulled all the offspring and I cut down and torched the parents... unless there is somebody out there who lives close to me who wants me to come over to cut down some of their Callery Pears to practice with. Practice makes perfect!