Re: Bradford Pear - warning
The only problem I ever had with pear trees is when we lived on Ft Huachuca in a house that was only several hundred yards from a big canyon. The bears loved em and would come down at night and climb the tree often breaking them off and on some occasions the bears would remain all day of course attracting all kinds of sight lookers. The people were more problem than the bears.
Re: Bradford Pear - warning
Aah, yes, the Bradford Pear. Apparently used to be very popular, but not anymore. There are lots of them in our area. We bought this house 4 years ago. It was built in 1991, so I'm not sure when the trees were planted. When we first moved in, I had an sickly old weeping willow tree removed from the backyard. That left us with 4 Bradford Pears across the back of the lot, and one Live Oak on the north side, in the backyard, plus one Bradford Pear and one Live Oak in the front yard plus one large Crepe Myrtle in front. I had to do a great deal of pruning to be able to walk under them to mow, and to cut them back from the power lines in back. And yes, wind is hard on Bradford Pear. The north half of the one in the front broke off on 4/10/08, then the south half broke off on 6/10/09, and I had the stump ground down below grade this past week. [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img] So we only have the 4 in back now and I "butchered" one of them to cut the limbs away from the power line.
Re: Bradford Pear - warning
yes, the bradford pear is bad...it was developed in maryland in the 70s or 80s and they are everywhere! they developed to grow full and not need pruning...this is because they prune themselves!
its not uncommon after a wind storm to see whole rows of them toppled over.
if we had any, i would remove them...
Re: Bradford Pear - warning
A Cleveland Select Pear is a better choice these days. Very similar in features less the weak branch structure.
Beautiful trees!