No, I Do Not Care For Bradford Pear

It has pretty white flowers and glossy green leaves; it grows easily just about anywhere. So why do I strongly recommend against planting it?

1. 1. It WILL eventually start dropping big limbs and split apart.
   2. For a lot of people, the flowers stink.
   3. If it produces fruit, new thorny seedlings will pop up everywhere.
   4. If you cut it down, thorny root sprouts will pop up everywhere.
   5. The thorns are sharp enough to puncture a tractor tire.
   6. There are other attractive trees that don’t have so many problems.

For me, the real problem with Bradford pear is how invasive it is. The links below explain why it is such a landscape thug.

I regularly drive on Chamblee-Tucker Rd. to Chamblee. As you pass the runways of Peachtree-DeKalb Airport, look to the right. Between Catalina Dr. and Burk Dr. the entire acreage is covered with escaped flowering pear bushes. Each one is covered with three-inch thorns.

A bulldozer is the only machine capable of clearing this spot for building. I pity the owners if they attempt anything.

The History of Bradford Pear

Bradford Pear Substitutes

A Wildly Sprouting Thorny Bush

One flowering pear interbred with others. The seeds that subsequently formed were dispersed by animals and resulted in an impenetrable thicket.

flower

leaf and fruit

sharp thorns

Walter Reeves

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