Bradford Pears Bloom in March This Year

Raleigh, NC attractions 2009

Bradford Pear blossom time is a favorite time in Raleigh. The budding flowers are already showing their brilliant white color as the neighboring trees seek to put leaf buds on.

Raleigh and the towns nearby have used the Bradford Pear tree (which is a variety of Chinese Callery Pear Tree) as a primary ornamental roadside tree in many neighborhoods.

This tree blooms for a period of time with just the white flowers before it starts to put on leaves. During the first week or two of bloom the trees are a brilliant white. Slowly the green leaves protrude, creating an illusion of a green fringe around the outside of the trees when viewed at a distance.

The Bradford Pear is not a particularly pleasant smelling tree. The odor is very soft, however, so its unpleasant scent is usually not an issue. The trees line many city streets where developers used them to give an air of elegance by spacing them every forty or fifty feet. In full bloom they are indeed magnificent.

The Bradford Pear is a deciduous tree that loses its leaves in the fall. The Callery Pear can grow as tall as sixty feet tall. The Bradford Pear and the Cleveland Pear hybrids have a mature height of thirty feet. The shape of the tree makes for a tree that needs little trimming to look as though it has been constantly treated.

The Cleveland Pear is considered an improvement on the Bradford Pear because it is more consistently symmetrical.

Many of Raleigh's trees are true Bradford Pear trees that were planted prior to the other variation being available. That has not affected the beauty of the trees.

Raleigh is fortunate that many business people and homeowners have decided that the Bradford Pear trees are excellent to adorn their properties. That is the upside of the plantings around the city.

The downside is that many of the original Bradford Pears are reaching maturity. Unlike the more hardy hybrids, these trees have the original problems that the tree introduced, making them easy subjects of wind and ice damage.

Modern plantings of pear trees are more likely to be the hybrids that have been developed with fewer of the problems of the original trees, but that still provide the beautiful vista for the people of Raleigh.

Max writes about greenways, rare diseases, timely topics, places to eat, travel and other issues of interest. He encourages you to add your comments.

Link one is to Cleveland Pear facts from a nursery

Link two is an article on trimming a Bradford Pear tree.