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Bradford Pears require a lot of thinning to keep healthy and that one looks like the branches were really full. Not that they still can't break, but it does really help. A better choice is a Cleveland Select - it grows more upright, and isn't prone to breaking like the Bradfords (but looks almost identical, flowers and all).
A quarter of our 10 yr old tree split off the day we were moving in. Fell right across the front sidewalk. It was a bright sunny day and I heard what sounded like a lightning strike. Luckily the movers were up at the road and no one was hurt and our things were fine. Oddly enough, a trash truck was driving by, saw the debris and hopped out to see how much we'd pay to rid of it quickly. Someone had a saw and they dragged it to the trash truck to be compacted. Our neighborhood is 10 yrs old and I've noticed many Bradford pears being hauled away.
We bought a 14 year old house last summer and we had a branch fall during a wind storm two weeks before we moved in to the home! The fallen limbs were removed but only after sitting for about one week which is long enough for the branches and leaves to kill the lawn underneath
The first light snow did more damage. We basically have about half 1/2 - 2/3 of the tree left. It is beautiful on one side and lacking on the other.
These really are not the kind of tree that should be placed in front yards the way they were, builders have since learned this. our neighborhood is littered with fallen Bradford Pears.
Yup, this is why I wouln't plant bradford pear trees. I also will not plant red tip shrubs. Certain plants are just prone to problems or disease. Like others have already said, it isn't a metter of "if" but "when" you will lose the plant.
I don't get the love affair with Bradfords. They stink to high heaven in the spring, send up "shoots" everywhere, tear up your shingles by dropping branches every time a stiff breeze comes through, and fall over if anything worse comes up. Every subdivision in Raleigh seems filled with them- were they buy 1 get 5000 free at a builder's expo or something?
I rate the Bradford Pear Tree right down there with "Red Tip" photenias, Leyland Cypress, landscape timbers and railroad ties
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