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Bradford pear trees banned in few states – More are looking to eradicate them

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Re: Bradford pear trees banned in few states – More are looking to eradicate them

#41

Post by ethbr1 »

echelon wrote: post #35
beezle wrote: post #8

Was on HOA board where we had a road with quite a few of these trees. They were a fortune to prune because of the numerous small branches at higher reaches. As a board, we actually hoped they would come down in storms so we could replace with something more appropriate without the take down cost (and resident complaints). Another unqiue thing is during the summer it was not uncommon for a branch to suddenly explode -…

Bradford pears were all the rage in the 1990s to 2000s. At one point HOAs thought these were the best tree . Local gardens and nurseries would sell lots of them to landscapers and homeowners. To this day, they're all over my home state of Georgia. And they're still selected for new landscaping. They did have a few pros: - Look great in the spring - Huge, lush, thick canopy in the summer - Fast growing But there are w…

I think this takes the cake for "first invasive species I've seen populate over my lifespan."

Just moved back to GA after 3 years away and asked folks what all the white-blossoming trees in meadows are this spring, as don't remember seeing so many blossoms previously.

Cherries (closest blossom I know) aren't that fruitful / clustering. Dogwoods look completely different.

> Extremely prone to falling over during winds or tornadoes.

Also kids climbing on them, from childhood experience. Weak wood.

Re: Bradford pear trees banned in few states – More are looking to eradicate them

#44

Post by xp84 »

echelon wrote: post #35
beezle wrote: post #8

Was on HOA board where we had a road with quite a few of these trees. They were a fortune to prune because of the numerous small branches at higher reaches. As a board, we actually hoped they would come down in storms so we could replace with something more appropriate without the take down cost (and resident complaints). Another unqiue thing is during the summer it was not uncommon for a branch to suddenly explode -…

Bradford pears were all the rage in the 1990s to 2000s. At one point HOAs thought these were the best tree . Local gardens and nurseries would sell lots of them to landscapers and homeowners. To this day, they're all over my home state of Georgia. And they're still selected for new landscaping. They did have a few pros: - Look great in the spring - Huge, lush, thick canopy in the summer - Fast growing But there are w…

Wow, that's pretty wild that those cons didn't dissuade people from propagating them deliberately!

Re: Bradford pear trees banned in few states – More are looking to eradicate them

#45

Post by deciplex »

stass wrote: post #28
hollywood_court wrote: post #15

This is good news. In my area the only thing worse than Bradford pears are the Mimosas. It took me ~3 years of consistent work to clear off the Mimosas from our 1 acre lot in town. And I still have to spray or hand pull hundreds of the tiny ones each season because none of my neighbors have been as diligent.

What's wrong with Mimosas? They smell so nice in spring!

Like anything else they're fine - the problem is when you drink too many of them.

Re: Bradford pear trees banned in few states – More are looking to eradicate them

#47

Post by silisili »

flutas wrote: post #18
beezle wrote: post #8

Was on HOA board where we had a road with quite a few of these trees. They were a fortune to prune because of the numerous small branches at higher reaches. As a board, we actually hoped they would come down in storms so we could replace with something more appropriate without the take down cost (and resident complaints). Another unqiue thing is during the summer it was not uncommon for a branch to suddenly explode -…

They also smell like someone took a rotting fish, dunked it in sewage and decided to roast it in the sun for a few days. They're everywhere where I live, and it's so bad.

My high school had a bunch of these. All the kids called them CumDrop trees, for good reason.

Re: Bradford pear trees banned in few states – More are looking to eradicate them

#48

Post by lotsofpulp »

echelon wrote: post #35
beezle wrote: post #8

Was on HOA board where we had a road with quite a few of these trees. They were a fortune to prune because of the numerous small branches at higher reaches. As a board, we actually hoped they would come down in storms so we could replace with something more appropriate without the take down cost (and resident complaints). Another unqiue thing is during the summer it was not uncommon for a branch to suddenly explode -…

Bradford pears were all the rage in the 1990s to 2000s. At one point HOAs thought these were the best tree . Local gardens and nurseries would sell lots of them to landscapers and homeowners. To this day, they're all over my home state of Georgia. And they're still selected for new landscaping. They did have a few pros: - Look great in the spring - Huge, lush, thick canopy in the summer - Fast growing But there are w…

> Local gardens and nurseries would sell lots of them to landscapers and homeowners.

They still do. It’s the cheapest bang for the buck tree for large scale developers across the entire US.

Re: Bradford pear trees banned in few states – More are looking to eradicate them

#49

Post by lotsofpulp »

stass wrote: post #28
hollywood_court wrote: post #15

This is good news. In my area the only thing worse than Bradford pears are the Mimosas. It took me ~3 years of consistent work to clear off the Mimosas from our 1 acre lot in town. And I still have to spray or hand pull hundreds of the tiny ones each season because none of my neighbors have been as diligent.

What's wrong with Mimosas? They smell so nice in spring!

In PNW, they look dead in the spring. The leaves don’t even appear until late May, and flowers bloom in late July at earliest.

Re: Bradford pear trees banned in few states – More are looking to eradicate them

#50

Post by olliej »

xp84 wrote: post #44
echelon wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bradford pears were all the rage in the 1990s to 2000s. At one point HOAs thought these were the best tree . Local gardens and nurseries would sell lots of them to landscapers and homeowners. To this day, they're all over my home state of Georgia. And they're still selected for new landscaping. They did have a few pros: - Look great in the spring - Huge, lush, thick canopy in the summer - Fast growing But there are w…

Wow, that's pretty wild that those cons didn't dissuade people from propagating them deliberately!

IIRC they were introduced aggressively as being a non-propagating, non fruiting tree or something, both of which turned out to be false, but by the time people realized this it was far too late :-/

Reminds me of SF planting Pōhutakawas everywhere - an NZ native tree that requires little water, don't fall over, don't fruit, etc. Except as any NZer could tell you, the reason they don't fall over is that they're evolved to grow on/around cliffs and loose earth, so they go all in on strong roots. Which mean constantly breaking roads and sidewalks. yay!

Also while they don't fruit they produce a tonne of flowers that produce a tonne of cruft on the ground :-/

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