Spring Blooms--Bradford Pear

Our Spring Beauty

Bug on Bradford Pear Blooms--2011

When you buy an established home, you never know what you are getting!  These beautiful blooms are from our Bradford Pear tree.  After doing a little research, I'm finding out that the tree is not very hardy, plus there are problems associated with the variety.  First a little about the beautiful tree.

Sky view--2011

The Bradford Pear comes from Korea and China and was grown commercially in the 60s.  In the springtime it is our first bloomer along with the native Redbud tree, and is covered in lovely white blossoms.  In the fall there is no lovelier turn of a leaf than our Bradford.  The leaves turn from green to deep maroon with a splash of orange.  The fall colors never dissapoint.  In the summertime the shade is always welcomed, and the tree in the backyard is actually helping to keep my kitchen comfortable. 

Now for a few problems:

According to some of the posts in surf-land, the Bradford pear is a fast-growing tree that puts off suckers, has a shallow root system and is prone to splitting during heavy freezes.  So far, we do not have any of those issues, but the posts go on to say that the Bradford pear has a short lifespan of about 20 years. 

So lovely in the springtime!

The trees in our yard are at least 13 to 15 years old.  We have not seen any limb damage, any suckers, or any splitting of the trunk.  All I can say about our previous homeowners is that they did consult a local nurseryman for all of their purchases, and for the most part, researched what was planted fairly well. 

This tree does not produce any fruit at all, rather the "fruit" are about the size of a snow pea and as the season progresses spoils with little orangy spikes coming out of it.  For years I kept waiting for the fruit to get larger, until one day Pat squashed that fantasy with the actual identification of the tree.  All along I thought we had a Bartlett Pear tree.  Ugh!