Spring is such a refreshing reprieve from the gloom of winter. Everywhere you look, something’s in bloom! I get so excited to smell and see all the flowers the season has to offer. That is, until I encounter what I believe to be one of the most overplanted and nasally overbearing trees in the landscape: the Bradford pear (Pyrus calleryana ‘Bradford’).
While rows of blooming Bradford pears can be breathtakingly beautiful, bad weather can pick these fragile trees off one by one.
Photo Credit: Bryce H. Lane
A heavy windstorm knocked out just one branch of this Bradford pear, ruining its entire appearance.
Photo Credit: Sarah L. Ivy
Personally, I can’t help but notice the odoriferous Bradford pear trees that appear on nearly every street corner in my area. I always know when they begin to bloom because three are planted right beside the ATM outside my bank. I can hardly stand the scent for even the short time it takes to make my transaction.
Of course, that’s not to say that Bradford pears don’t have any merits – after all, they wouldn’t be so overplanted if there wasn’t anything desirable about them. They do have tons of early spring blooms and a nice, tidy shape. But it’s that very lollipop shape that contributes to the tree’s downfall and tends to put the Bradford pear on the “horticultural black list.”
You see, it’s the upright branching that gives Bradford pear its nice shape. But unfortunately, that means narrow crotch angles, which translates into extremely weak branches. (The strongest branches of any tree have crotch angles of close to 90 degrees [measured between a branch and the main trunk].) So at the first sign of adversity, Bradford pear branches split – and we’re talkin’ in any kind of bad weather. From heavy wind to ice to even snow accumulation, it can all spell disaster for the poor tree, resulting in limb breakage and branch splitting.
What’s even worse is that tree damage is usually not limited to small, unnoticeable branch loss. Injuries typically disfigure the tree because entire sections from top to bottom are lost. (It’s like cutting a big slice out of an apple). This can be particularly frustrating to homeowners who line their driveways with Bradford pears, dreaming of the beautiful blooms they’ll admire every day in spring. Then along comes a stiff wind, and WHAM! Trees No. 4 and 7 are destroyed, ruining the look of the whole planting (no to mention the overall landscape).
So what good is a Bradford pear if it’s such an unreliable tree? Well, it still has its uses – we just have to adjust our thinking on how we plant it.
While we can’t change the weather, we can change our expectations of the tree in the landscape. It might help to think of the Bradford pear as a “temporary tree.” If you want to add this ornamental beauty to your yard, just remember that its life will likely be shorter than that of other shade trees, and you’ll probably have to replace it – and that’s okay, as long as you’re willing to deal with it. This means if you’re looking for a spring bloomer to use in a row planting, select something else. Bradford pears are best used as a single specimen if you aren’t interested in doing a lot of replacement planting.
If you’ve got a Bradford pear and are now worried about it after reading this article – don’t be. Enjoy the tree’s beauty for as long as it lasts! But if something does happen to it, think about changing things up a bit in your landscape. Recently, a neighbor of mine lost his Bradford pear because it split in a windstorm. Instead of leaving his newly shredded tree to mar his yard’s beauty, I thought it would be a good idea to replace it with something better. There are lots of other flowering trees that bloom just as wonderfully without all the structural problems of Bradford pears! (Purple leaf plum or Japanese cherry are just two examples.)
So if you’re scouting for a tree to add flavor to your garden – especially in spring – look beyond the Bradford pear. While its springtime beauty is tempting, the tree’s got some structural issues you might not want to deal with – not to mention a smell that only a mother could love.
