Tree · Rosaceae
Bradford Pear
Pyrus calleryana
Cloaked in creamy white bloom on brittle upright limbs, the Bradford pear splits in storms and spreads as an aggressive invasive, so it is best not planted.
Full sun
Every 7–14 days
USDA 5–9
30–50 ft · 9.1–15.2 m
Overview
The Bradford pear is a Callery pear, a fast-growing ornamental that wears a dense, rounded crown of upright limbs and, in early spring, drowns itself in clusters of small, creamy white five-petaled flowers. It roots happily in poor soil, dry ground, and city pollution, which is how it came to fill so many yards and parking lots. Lean in toward those pretty blooms, though, and they give off a sour, off-putting smell that startles people the first time.
Beneath the smooth green leaves and tidy shape sit two serious flaws. The limbs rise at tight, weak angles where a seam of trapped bark replaces solid wood, so the joints tear apart in wind, snow, or ice and mature trees often split within 15 to 25 years. Worse, the cultivars cross-pollinate and set fertile seed inside their hard little pomes, which birds carry into the wild, where it grows up into dense thorny thickets that shove out native plants.
That second flaw has finally caught up with the tree. Several states have banned its sale, and most experts now steer gardeners toward a native flowering tree instead. The care notes below cover managing a Bradford pear you already have, but setting a new one in the ground is no longer a sound choice.
Care
The short version: this is a full-sun tree easy about soil, thirsty only while young and sparing of water once settled, barely fed, and asking mainly for structural pruning and a watchful eye on the brittle limbs that split as it ages.
Light
Set in full sun the crown grows densest and the white bloom comes heaviest, though the tree will hold a looser shape in partial shade. The more light reaches the limbs, the fuller and more even the leafy canopy knits together.
Water
A young tree needs steady moisture while its roots take hold, but once settled the Bradford pear turns drought-tolerant and lives on dry to medium water. Give it a drink through a true dry spell and otherwise let the top half of the root zone go dry between waterings.
Soil
The roots are remarkably easygoing about the ground they hold. The tree takes clay, loam, or sand across a wide pH of 5.5 to 8.0, leans toward good drainage but shrugs off heavy clay, the odd waterlogged spell, drought, and city pollution.
Temperature
Its wood and buds endure from about -20°F to 100°F (-29°C to 38°C), carrying it through zone 5 cold and southern heat alike. That broad tolerance is part of why it spread so far.
Humidity
Plain outdoor humidity is all the leaves want, so there is no level to manage. Moving air matters more than moisture in the air, since damp, crowded foliage is what the leaf spot and fire blight take hold in.
Feeding
A settled tree in average soil rarely needs feeding at all. Where the growth is thin, a balanced slow-release tree fertilizer in early spring is plenty, and heavy nitrogen only pushes the soft, succulent shoots that fire blight feeds on.
Pruning
Prune in winter while the bare tree is dormant, taking out the crossing, weak, and narrow-angled limbs to open a sounder frame. The cutting improves the odds but cannot undo the splitting weakness built into the wood, so the tree belongs well clear of strong winds.
Repotting
none
Size & spacing
This is a large tree, lifting 30 to 50 feet (9 to 15 m) tall and spreading 20 to 35 feet (6 to 11 m) wide. Give it open ground well clear of buildings, wires, and walkways, since the aging limbs come down on their own.
When to plant
The Bradford pear runs through a clear yearly cycle in zones 5 through 9. Balled-and-burlapped or container trees go in the ground in early spring or fall, the sour-scented white flowers open in April before or with the leaves, and the small round brownish pomes ripen in fall, after which birds carry the seed away.
Northern hemisphere
Southern hemisphere
Typical months for a temperate climate: start earlier in warm zones, later where spring frosts linger.
- Plant: Plant balled-and-burlapped or container trees in early spring or fall.
- Harvest: Creamy white flowers in early spring (April), before or with the leaves; small round brownish pomes mature in fall.
Hardiness
USDA hardiness zones: 5–9
Temperature: down to -29°C
Troubleshooting
The troubles of this tree split into two kinds: the brittle wood that fails under load and the diseases that mark its blossoms, shoots, and leaves. Learning what each one looks like up close lets you read the tree early, before a cracked seam turns dangerous or a blight runs through the crown.
The trunk splits open or a heavy limb tears free
The wood gives way where the limbs crowd together too steeply. Narrow, V-shaped crotches trap a thin seam of bark between the stems instead of solid wood, and under the load of wind, snow, or ice that seam fails and a mature tree can split down its length, often within 15 to 25 years. The crown to watch is one full of tight forks and several upright stems of matching thickness, and a tree already cracked along those seams is best reduced or removed by an arborist.
Fix:
- Remove damaged or hazardous limbs promptly with proper cuts
- Have a certified arborist assess and reduce or remove the tree if structurally compromised
- Replace failing trees with a structurally sound, non-invasive species
Shoot tips blacken and curl into a tight hook
The tender new growth turns dark and droops into the bend of a shepherd's crook, the unmistakable look of fire blight, a bacterial infection that runs through warm, wet spring weather. Sticky cankers weep along the bark, and the blackened death creeps back from the tips toward the trunk. Cut the affected wood away 8 to 12 inches below the lowest mark on a dry day, wiping the blades clean between every cut so the bacteria does not ride from limb to limb.
Fix:
- Prune out infected wood at least 8-12 inches below visible symptoms during dry weather
- Disinfect pruning tools between cuts
- Remove and destroy pruned material; do not compost
Reddish-purple flecks spread, then the leaves fall
Tiny reddish to purple flecks scatter across the green blades and swell until they run into one another, the signature of Entomosporium leaf spot, a fungus that wakes up in wet weather. A heavy infection yellows the foliage and strips it early, though the tree itself rarely comes to harm. Gather and destroy the spotted leaves once they drop, thin the crown so air slips through, and keep water off the foliage.
Fix:
- Rake up and destroy fallen infected leaves
- Improve air circulation and avoid overhead wetting of foliage
- Apply a labeled fungicide in spring if the problem is recurring and severe
Toxicity
On safety the news is easy: the Bradford pear is not a poisonous tree. It does not appear on the ASPCA toxic-plant lists, and the small, hard, pea- to marble-sized pomes will not poison a pet or grazing animal. The one honest caveat is that, like apple and pear seeds, the pips inside those pomes carry trace cyanogenic compounds, so a heavy fruit fall is worth raking up rather than letting an animal gorge on it.
Safe for
People · Cats · Dogs · Horses · Rabbits · Livestock · Birds
Cats None
A cat that mouths a glossy leaf or a hard little pome off the ground is in no danger, since the tree sits off the toxic lists. The pips packed inside the fruit hold trace cyanogenic compounds, as in most rose-family kin, so the fallen pomes are worth sweeping up.
Dogs None
Neither the leaves nor the small, woody-hard pomes pose a real poisoning risk to a dog. Bolting a whole scatter of windfall can leave one with a passing upset stomach, and the seeds inside carry the same trace cyanogenic compounds as other pears, so a dog should not gorge on them.
Horses None
Horses can crop the leaves and the round brown fruit in normal amounts without harm. As in any pear, the seeds tucked in the core hold a little cyanogenic material, so the only scene worth a look is a horse breaking into a heavy drop of the pomes.
Rabbits None
The thin twigs and smooth leaves are not toxic to rabbits and make fine occasional browse. The seeds are the part to keep out of reach, since the trace cyanogenic compounds packed in them are best avoided in a small animal.
Livestock None
Cattle, goats, and sheep can graze the foliage and the windfall pomes safely. The familiar rose-family caveat holds, that the seeds inside the fruit carry trace cyanogenic compounds, so a heavy fall of the little pomes is worth raking up before stock crowd in.
Birds None
Birds swallow the small round pomes whole with no trouble at all, and that is exactly how the seed travels so far. There is nothing in the hard little fruit to warn them off.
People Safe
The tree holds no toxic threat for people. The hard, pea- to marble-sized pomes are no food crop and offer nothing worth eating, and like apple and pear seeds the pips carry trace cyanogenic compounds, so there is no reason to chew them.
No special handling needed for toxicity. Wear gloves and eye protection when pruning, as escaped seedlings and rootstock sprouts can bear sharp thorns.
Varieties
A few named Callery pear selections have been sold over the years, each shaped to a cleaner outline or a richer leaf color in fall. Whatever their look, every one still crosses with the others, so they all feed the invasive seedling problem.
'Bradford'
The original and most infamous cultivar forms a dense pyramidal-to-oval crown of upright limbs that meet at famously narrow crotches and split in storms, and though it cannot pollinate itself it still feeds the invasive seedling problem by crossing with its neighbors.
'Cleveland Select' / 'Chanticleer'
Its silhouette is a tighter, more upright and narrowly pyramidal column of roughly 35 feet tall and 16 feet wide, carried on somewhat sturdier branching with better fire-blight resistance, yet it stays a Callery pear that crosses with others to spread.
'Aristocrat'
Its limbs spread in a stronger, more open framework than the crowded 'Bradford', though the wood falls to fire blight more easily, and it still adds to the invasive seedling spread.
'Autumn Blaze'
Its leaves turn a dependable deep red-purple in fall on a cold-hardy frame, but it crosses with the other cultivars to throw fertile, bird-carried seedlings just like the rest.
How to propagate
This tree multiplies by two routes, and neither belongs in a home garden. Nurseries graft the named cultivars onto rootstock, while the species sows itself through the seed packed in its bird-eaten pomes, the very path that turned it invasive.
GraftingDemanding
Late winter to spring (bench grafting) or summer (budding) · 1-2 growing seasons to establish the graft union
Named cultivars like 'Bradford' will not come true from seed, so nurseries join them to Pyrus calleryana rootstock by grafting or budding, usually a bench graft in late winter to spring or a bud set in summer. The cut surfaces fuse into a sound graft union over one to two growing seasons. The work is exacting, and given the tree's invasive habit and brittle wood there is little reason to attempt it at home.
SeedEasy
Fall, after fruit ripens · 1-2 growing seasons to a seedling
The species sows itself with no help, as birds strip the round fall pomes and drop the seed, which sprouts into a seedling over one to two growing seasons. The catch is that cross-pollination among the cultivars makes those seedlings invasive, so raising them on purpose is discouraged and increasingly against the law.
Myths
Bradford pear is sterile and cannot spread, so it is safe to plant.
'Bradford' cannot fertilize its own flowers, but it crosses freely with other Callery pear cultivars and with rootstock sprouts, setting viable seed inside its little pomes that birds carry far and wide into dense thorny thickets. Several US states have now banned its sale outright.