I think many people are well aware that the Bradford pear, Pyrus calleryana ‘Bradford’ is not a desirable landscape tree. It has a very weak branching pattern and has a tendency to split apart, even at a relatively young age. For those of you in the northeast who recently endured the freak October snowstorm, this characteristic was painfully apparent and dramatic. Some of the Bradford’s looked like they’d been struck by an artillery shell, leaving a splayed pile of branches and a stump.
