It's a wonderful life...)
It's a wonderful life...)
Here is what we have now everywhere we go in this lower half of South Carolina - - our version of 'snow'..:))
Bradford Pear
Pyrus calleryiana, "Bradford"
The Bradford Pear is a cultivated variety of the Callery Pear. Unlike most other pear trees this form is grown mainly for its ornamental features. The showy, white flowers appear during spring growth, often before the leaves. In contrast to their appearance, however, the flowers have an unpleasant odor.
In autumn the leaves turn bright red to dark red before falling. The fruits are small and round, less than 1 inch in diameter, hardly resembling the traditional pear in appearance. While on a tree they are hardly visible, being hidden by leaves.
The Bradford Pear is very disease resistant, making it useful as a street tree. But the relatively short life span (about 25 to 30 years) makes it necessary to replace individuals more frequently than with most other street or screen trees.
My Observation:
Most of the trees I've seen are easily 40' tall, and the majority seem to have been established more than 25-30 years - perhaps under less stress from cold here?
Always wanting one in my yard, in 1997 I searched 3 counties to find 'just the right one' - about 8' tall, and was carried home in the car, sticking out the back passenger window. I chose the 'perfect spot' in the front yard and toiled planting it.
One week later, our landlady, who had married again and moved away, needed to sell her house to get a bigger one in Augusta..:(
Just as well, since the huge by-the-lake lot-on a-hill-sloping-down to-the water was becoming too much for me to physically maintain. I had kept adding flower beds all over it, and had to keep at bay the kudzu vines creeping over from the next door lot that belonged to the city, and that we mowed and tidied as limbs fell!
The nice thing is it is only a mile and a half away, and I can visit it each Spring - now soaring well above the roof of the house; perhaps 35 feet tall, and 'perfectly' shaped..:))