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VINCENT COTRONE / SPECIAL TO THE SUNDAY TIMES The Callery pear tree gained popularity through the years but has since become an invasive species that has other potential problems, like poor branch structure.

The time to stop planting Callery pear trees has arrived.

Flowering Callery pear (Pyrus calleryana), known to most by the name Bradford pear and one of the first introduced cultivars of this Asian pear, probably is the most over-planted landscape tree. Don’t get me wrong, Callery pear is a tough, drought- and salt-resistant tree that grows quickly even in poor soils and matures at about 40 feet in height. I planted thousands of these on the streets of New York City back in the 1980s because they could grow in small sidewalk openings, they flowered in early spring, and people loved them.

Now that people have planted them everywhere and they can be purchased cheaply for $9.99 from a box store garden center, it appears numerous problems exist. Here are my top reasons for not planting Callery pear:

Firstly, the trees have poor branch structure and are prone to breaking apart. This is especially true of the variety “Bradford,” but we have seen it with other varieties also. Callery pears develop co-dominant leaders instead of maintaining one main trunk like an oak would. As these co-dominant branches grow larger in diameter, they apply pressure to tight, V-shaped attachments and split apart. We used to think early wet snows that arrived while the pears still had leaves on them caused this, but many pop apart in rain storms or light winds after 15 to 20 years. Who wants to plant a self-destructing tree?

We also should stop planting Callery pear because they have become invasive. Since the initial introduction of Bradford, there have been 10 to 12 other varieties all cross-pollinating and producing lots and lots of small, pea-sized fruit birds then spread. Callery pear seedlings wind up everywhere – along roadsides and in gardens, stormwater detention basins and even forests. We have enough other invasive species displacing our native plants; we do not need to continue planting Callery pear and adding to the list of invasive plants we need to remove from our fields and forests.

Callery pear also is susceptible to fire blight. This year, I have seen many pear trees infected and dying because of fire blight, a bacterium that enters the flowers in the spring and quickly kills off branches. No chemical control for fire blight exists; the diseased branches need to be pruned out and destroyed, otherwise the bacterium will be present next spring to re-infect new branches. Why plant a tree that probably will get an incurable disease and die?

So, if you have a dying Callery pear or thought about planting a pear, consider planting something else that flowers in the spring, such as Kousa dogwood, a disease-resistant dogwood; Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas), really a flowering dogwood; serviceberry, which needs some shade; redbud; Japanese tree lilac; or a disease-resistant variety of flowering crabapple. For more information on tree selection or fire blight, visit or

VINCENT COTRONE is an urban forester for Penn State Cooperative Extension.