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The Wild Harvest Digest: December 2025, #1

Good Morning Neighbors,

I hope all of you out there had a happy and safe Thanksgiving/Indigenous People’s Day last week. Just in case some of you out there missed it, there was no post last week due to the holiday being on a Thursday. #NoBradfords
<Alt Text 1 of 4> I hope all of you out there had a happy and safe Thanksgiving/Indigenous People’s Day last week. Just in case some of you out there missed it, there was no post last week due to the holiday being on a Thursday. The same will be true for Christmas week, but not the case for New Year’s week. So today, we are taking a look at a plant is a bit notorious, some folks love this plant, and the rest of us think those people are weird. The Callery Pear was at one point in the last sixty years planted all over the urban landscape because it had a large number of advantages. It didn’t heave the sidewalks and roads, it grew fast, it had pretty good fall color, its leaves are great for composting, and it has a ton of white flowers in spring followed by useful but tiny fruit in the fall or early winter. The flaws of the Callery Pear are numerous also, its flowers stink; some liken the odor to [censored] or rotting fish and that odor is unfortunately intentional. Studies have found that the odor of the flowers is meant to attract flies which pollenate the plant and not Bees or other more desirable pollinators. Another issue with the Callery Pear is its soft wood and poor branch angles which often cause it to self-vivisect at random the moment a decent wind or storm looks its way. In colder climates it is not a rare sight to see a Callery pear torn asunder by the weight of ice in a winter storm making them a local hazard. <Alt Text 1 of 4> <Alt Text 2 of 4> Attempts to fix this problem were tried and resulted in the Cleveland Select Pear cultivar but, I for one am reluctant to trust this plant, it’s already got the word ‘cleave’ in the name and does anything good ever come out of Cleveland? Worse yet the Callery Pear is considered Invasive as it has readily escaped cultivation and entire stands of this plant can be found in the wild choking out native species. The more common name for this non-native deciduous street tree is Bradford Pear (Pyrus calleryana) and it was first introduced to the United States in between 1909 and 1916 and its first recognition for use wasn’t until the 1950’s. By the 1960’s Callery Pears had become fairly popular but they really got their day in the sun when they were promoted by Lady Bird Johnson in 1966 when she planted one in downtown Washington D.C. Shortly after that they were in every garden enter and nursery and people where planting them everywhere with no idea of the mistake they were making. Granted that it’s pretty rare to find a landscape tree with as many positive traits as the Bradford Pear has, the problem with the plant is that it is deeply invasive. It has been noted in a few records to have escaped cultivation in at least 152 counties in 25 states in the United States. The escaped plants revert back to their original genotype in successive generations making them no longer a Bradford Cultivar. <Alt Text 2 of 4> <Alt Text 3 of 4> {Photo Note: This tree split in a windstorm a few years ago. I joked at the time that finally someone had found a real use for the plant, as a cup holder.} These plants can produce localized varieties that can interbreed producing further mutations and in some cases the normal spurs one might expect from a member of the Pyrus family can make a reappearance in these wild specimens. For now the spread of this invasive pest-tree is limited by its intolerance for exceptionally cold weather and areas with enough ice and wind to demolish the plants regularly. However as Jeff Goldblum’s character said in Jurassic Park ‘Nature uh, finds a way’ and slowly the wild types are making their way northward. As far as I know only two states have banned the cultivation of Bradford Pears and that is Ohio and South Carolina, while Pennsylvania made it a class B noxious weed and banned its sale and distribution. In our state of North Carolina our agriculture department has recognized the problem with Bradford Pears and started a Tree Bounty arrangement in partnership with several other organizations. (https://www.treebountync.com/ ) Our local Magazine CityView even covered the Bradford Pear bounty program in detail and here’s a link to that article. https://www.cityviewnc.com/stories/north-carolinas-bradford-pear-bounty-program-came-to-cumberland-county-trading-the-stinky-trees-for-native-species/ <Alt Text 3 of 4> <Alt Text 4 of 4> {Photo note: "Silly Bradford, always laying down on the job! You'll never get that street tree promotion with that work ethic! lol} There is some additional bad news on this front; Callery Pears have been used as root stock for grafted pear cultivars such as Comice, Bosc, Sekel and Nashi. This means you might just have one of these horrible trees in your yard right now and it’s out there planning to take over. So if you’re planning to grow pears for fruit, always double check what the root stock is because you might get more than you planned for. If you have a pear that seems to be producing a whole lot of aggressive shoots from the root stock that might just be a Bradford rootstock grafted to the variety you intended. Aggressively cutting back the water shoots coming off the root of your grafted pear can ensure that the part you want remains healthy and isn’t over taken. This also means being very vigilant as any part of the root system that reaches the surface can also produce shoots that can produce another Bradford Pear. So in closing, The Callery/Bradford/Cleveland Pear is a hot mess. It’s not something you really want in your yard or near your yard but thankfully these trees do not live long and you’re seeing less of them for sale with each passing year. <Alt Text 4 of 4>
December 5, 2025 at 2:02 AM