The Bradford pear is a problem, junk, invasive tree - so not plant! I’ll tell you why in just a second. The Bradford pear was a tree that was very over used in the early 2000s. It was to be the perfect tree in every way, but it turned out to be a disaster in many ways. While they are pretty in the spring, I am going to share pictures with you from one of our Bradford pear tree before it is cut down. We eventually plan to have all of our Bradford pears cut down that we’re planted before we owned our current land. The flowers are pretty but on the Bradford pear they are weak and the entire tree can just snap in half, it’s happened to us! They just die out of no where, average lifespan is only about 20 years. They grow super fast and are weak wooded. They grow suckers like crazy that can have sharp thorns all over them, but most important they are invasive like crazy and spread all over which crowd our native plants! Here in north central missouri these pop up all over the place even 100 yards away from the nearest large Bradford pear. These are also called Callery pear, not to be confused with a normal food producing pear, the Bradford doesn’t give food, but they do make tiny like pear/berries that make a total mess! Again, Bradford are pretty in the spring, and grow fast, but they are junk and should not be planted realistically!
