What to Do If You Have an Invasive Bradford Pear Tree Growing in Your Yard
If you find a Bradford pear tree growing in your yard, it's important to act fast to prevent this highly invasive plant from spreading. Here's what to do.
Bradford pear trees (Pyrus calleryana), also known as Callery pears, are extremely invasive plants. Until recently, they were a popular flowering tree and many landscapers and home gardeners planted them because of their spring blooms and ability to thrive in almost any growing conditions.
But those characteristics are why these invasive trees have become such a big problem. They spread easily via seeds and send up new shoots everywhere, crowding out native species and taking over entire areas in a matter of a few years. Not only are they upsetting the local flora along roadsides and in empty fields, parks, and woodlands, they are a nuisance in the home garden as well.
If you see Bradford pear tree saplings sprouting up in your garden or you have a mature tree already growing in your yard, here’s what you need to do. It’s time to stop this invasive species from spreading even more and taking over your landscape.
Why Bradford Pear Trees Are a Problem
Bradford pear trees are native to China, but were introduced to the United States by the Department of Agriculture over a century ago. They used them to hybridize with fruiting pear trees to improve disease resistance, particularly to fire blight.
Bradford pear trees were released commercially in 1961 and became extremely popular landscaping plants soon after that. They have attractive white flowers that appear in spring and they are able to thrive in almost any growing conditions. They were also believed to be sterile, until they started cross-pollinating with other nearby cultivars and began producing fruit with viable seeds.
By the early 2000s, Bradford pear trees had spread far and wide. They started taking over roadsides, abandoned fields, and woodlands where native plants couldn’t compete with their aggressive spread. They reproduce readily via seeds spread by birds and choke out valuable native species.
Another reason why Bradford pear trees are bad is the unpleasant scent that their flowers produce. They are also weak trees and limbs break off easily under the weight of snow and ice, risking serious damage to your home if you have one in your yard.
How to Identify a Bradford Pear Tree
Bradford pear trees are relatively small trees, rarely reaching over 40 feet (12 m) high. They grow in a pyramidal shape and produce clusters of white five-petaled flowers in early to mid-spring. The flowers have a strong and unpleasant scent.
The leaves that emerge after blooming are dark green and glossy. Their bark is grayish and starts out smooth then becomes scaly as it ages. Their fruit is small and round, less than 1 inch (2.5 cm) in diameter, and can be green or brown
What to Do If You Find a Bradford Pear Tree
If you live in the eastern or southern US, it’s likely you may have a Bradford pear tree in your yard. In 2015, this tree was the third most popular tree in New York and, in the past, many HOAs even required homeowners to plant this now invasive species.
The best way to get rid of Bradford trees is when they are young. If you see a seedling sprouting in your yard, dig it out and throw it away immediately. Never compost weeds or invasive plants, instead put them in the trash to prevent these plants from spreading.
If you have a mature Bradford pear tree in your yard, the best way to get rid of it is to chop it down and apply an herbicide to the stump immediately after cutting.
With extremely invasive plants like the Bradford pear, most environmental agencies recommend using a 25-50% diluted solution of glyphosate, which you can buy as Roundup from Home Depot, or triclopyr, which you can get on Amazon.
There are also specific stump killers, like this one from Tractor Supply that contains triclopyr, that you can use. But do not use any stump killers that require burning. This is a very dangerous way to try to remove a tree stump.
Brush the herbicide on the cut stump in order to stop new shoots from sprouting. Another effective and chemical-free method to try is covering the stump with a black trash bag. This is a method I’ve used on invasive honeysuckle stumps that were too large to dig out by hand right after cutting them down.
Leave the trash bag on the stump for at least one year to block the sunlight from reaching any new shoots that begin to grow. The following season, the stump may be covered in mushrooms and that’s good. That means the stump is dead or dying and the fungus is naturally breaking down the wood and speeding up the decomposition process.
What to Plant Instead
After removing a Bradford pear tree from your yard, it’s wise to replant a beneficial native tree species to help support your local ecosystem and add beauty back into your landscape. Here are some of the best native trees to grow instead of Bradford pears:
- Flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) is a beautiful native white flowering tree with blooms that appear in spring soon after Bradford pear flowers. You can get a dogwood tree from Fast Growing Trees.
- Serviceberry (Amelanchier spp.) also has delicate white blooms that show up in spring and dazzling orange foliage in fall. Get a serviceberry tree from Jackson & Perkins online.
- Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis) is another stunning spring bloomer with purple pea-like blossoms that light up shady woodlands. They do spread easily via seed, so you may see lots of baby redbud saplings start popping up. But if you have a large area you want to fill with a native species, redbud is a great choice. You can get a redbud tree from Fast Growing Trees.
Some local municipalities actually provide free native trees to plant after removing Bradford pears. There are others who will pay you a reimbursement for removing invasive Bradford pear trees, which are actually banned from sale now in many parts of the country. Look online to see if there is a reimbursement program in your local area.
