Bradford Pears
In my former hometown of Fredericksburg, Virginia, Zone 7, these trees were
planted in the late 1970's as our "official" street tree. What a disaster!
The public official (since retired, thank God) who oversaw tree planting
programs would not listen to evidence that this tree was a bad choice because of
its weak crotch angles. Each year, like clockwork, windstorms would rip through
our town and wreak havoc on the trees. On average, 20 to 25 trees were lost per
episode.
To make matters worse, in spring our little town held a Bradford pear festival.
Well the darn trees never bloomed at the right time, and when they did, the odor
was unbearable. In fall, flocks of hungry starlings would visit the trees and
consume the "pears" (actually looked like small unripe cherries) and defecate
all over the sidewalks, cars, and in some cases, passers-by. One could not
conduct any business without crunching on bird mess. The whole situation came
to a head when then President Bush visited our hometown and attempted to give a
speech on the sidewalk. Luckily, he was under a canopy, but alas- the poor
secret service fellows were not! Our City Council conducted a meeting and
vowed to curtail the use of Bradfords in the future. When New Year's Eve rolled
around and still no official action was taken, a local environmental group
banded together with an art group to produce a huge papier-mache Bradford pear
"fruit", filled with slimy "goo". This was dropped with much ado, (like the
ball in Times Square )as we approached the New Year. Our local paper covered
the ceremony. At the next council meeting, the members had an epiphany and
crossed the Bradford off the list of acceptable street trees.
Regards,
Julie Finn
Sarasota, FL, USA
Zone 10
