Ornamental Pear Tree Damage

16 years ago

We purchased 3 ornamental pear trees and planted them last fall. During the winter we noticed rabbits nibbling on the bark and by the time we noticed it, they had done quite a bit of damage. We wrapped the trees and put a coating on the worst one. This Spring, one tree has leafed out and is blooming. A second tree has leaves but no blooms. The third tree (the one worst damaged) has no leaves or buds but when you break a small branch it is green inside. My question is - should be remove the worst tree and replace it? Also is the second tree doomed (the one that has leaves but no flowers)?

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Comment (1)

whynotmi
15 years ago
Hi,

I'm guessing you have Bradford Pear trees or some variety of Bradford (Cleveland Select, Stone Hill, Select, etc.)

The tree that has leafed out but not bloomed may be due to a few different factors: the tree damage was enough to shock it out of blooming this year, still settling in from planting last year, or a late frost may have killed off any early buds. Since it is leafing out, I'd let it go and see how it does over the summer as far as leaf production and stem growth. Worst case? You'll have to replace it later.

The tree that is still "dormant" may also still be in shock from transplanting and rabbit damage. It's likely that it will be somewhat stunted compared to the others, if it survives that is. If you want a "matched set" of trees I'd replace it now. If you don't mind having potentially "mis-matched" trees let it go and see how it does. Again, no harm in waiting since the worst case is replacement.

Just a few words about Bradford Pears, if they are BPs. They are very popular and for some time were considered the tree of choice by developers and towns for open planting. They are very pretty trees and fairly tolerant of many different soil and environmental conditions. However, the structure of the tree is such that as they age they become prone to wind, snow and ice damage. This is partly due to the angle of the branches off the trunk and how close together the branches grow off the trunk. It is very common to see 15-20 year old Bradfords with sections of branch missing due to storm damage. Because of these weaknesses, some here on GW absolutely HATE BPs. They'd tell you to rip out all three and get something else.

Hope that helped an good luck with your trees
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Commercial sources routinely under state likely long term development of trees. Otherwise the sheet I linked to is from Lake County. The appearance of the young example they show in flower and growth habit drawing they put on the sheet imply more vigorous and vertical growth. If the older one they also show is the original seedling variant - which seems likely - it may not have the horsepower of grafted clones of it being produced using root stocks of full vigor (if such stocks are being used). Production of such combinations goes both ways, it's not just that scions of normally vigorous cultivars can be dwarfed by using weaker growing stocks (as is done with orchard fruit trees). Dwarf variants can also become invigorated by grafting onto seedling or otherwise non-dwarf stocks. This has become evident in the area of commercial production of garden conifers for instance, where grafted stocks of quite small forms may grow so quickly and readily out of character when placed on seedling stocks that nursery signs may give 10 or more year heights that are the same - or even smaller - than the size of the much younger material on display.
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Ornamental Pear Tree Damage

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whynotmi

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