What are the trees with white flowers blooming all over the city?Animanialmanac t1_jdexvxr wrote
Reply to comment by dpirmann in What are the trees with white flowers blooming all over the city? by tealccart
These trees are not hardy, they’re cheap to buy and plant. The Bradford pear trees drop branches anytime it gets windy. I paid an arborist to remove the one on front of my house years ago because it dropped large, ten in diameter branches on my car. I always worried a branch would fall on someone.
We replaced them with redbuds in our backyards, much prettier pinkish red blooms and no dropped branches. I don’t believe the city does a good job with their tree programs.
PigtownDesign t1_jdeyq0q wrote
Most of the Bradfords are 40+ years old and were the city tree of choice at the time. As they age/die, the city’s forestry program is replacing them with a hardier tree. Things change as we understand the issues more clearly and the city’s forestry program is changing with the times.
Animanialmanac t1_jdf6fs8 wrote
I don’t believe this is true, even the city tree teams said the Bradford pears live twenty five years at most. I hope the city is getting better as they learn more.
Dr_EllieSattler t1_jdfg8pk wrote
I found a Sun article from 2008 that discusses the Bradford's history in Baltimore.
Former Mayor William Donald Schaefer loved them. He planted many while in office from 1972-1987. He also named the chanticleer pear (a cousin to the Bradford) the official city tree.
The article also states the trees were being replaced as sidewalk and street work is performed but there is "no systematic campaign to rid the city of Bradford pear trees"
Animanialmanac t1_jdfhrgp wrote
Thank you. That makes more sense than what others wrote. It’s a stinky tree, residents should be able to have them removed and replaced with native trees.
EstablishmentFull797 t1_jdfjtm4 wrote
They are incredibly invasive too, and an ecological scourge crowding out native trees that benefit wildlife.
[deleted] t1_jdhznyu wrote
My partner and I were just driving along the highway and saying Bradford pear trees really highlight the issue with invasives because they bloom do early they're easy to distinguish. And there are so many of them.
EstablishmentFull797 t1_jdi11m1 wrote
Yeah, parts of 695 are just a straight up wall of insidious white flowers this time of year.
Animanialmanac t1_jdfnwro wrote
Yes! I was reading in the article the other user posted. They are invasive, birds and deer spread them.
The wooded area around Maiden Choice run has many Bradford Pear crowding out the other trees, now I know how they got there.
Cheomesh t1_jdh9205 wrote
In a way also kind of native (ish) since they were hybridized here in MD.
EstablishmentFull797 t1_jdi1kyw wrote
Nah not really. The trees that they hybridized from were invasive too.
That’s like how there’s places in North America where there are wild pigs that are hybrids of feral domestic swine and Russian boars. Still invasive, just with local flair.
Cheomesh t1_jdi57gz wrote
Yeah, fair.
NewrytStarcommander t1_jdeylma wrote
The city tree team doesn't plant these. Maybe in the distant past, but more likely flippers and developers these days.
Animanialmanac t1_jdf6747 wrote
The city planted the ones on my street about twenty years ago, not so distant past. It wasn’t developers or flippers. My husband and I, and all my neighbors at the time objected, it was well known even then that Bradford pears were smelly weak trees but the city crews planted them anyway, then refused to care for or prune them. I remember it well, it wasn’t developers or flippers, this was a nice street full of homeowners back then. Eddie Reisinger was a new councilman, he promised to have the trees removed before the smell got too bad then we never heard from the city tree teams again. The tree in front of my house partially fell, raising up the sidewalk and breaking the plumbing lines. That’s when we had it removed.
The city and a non profit did the same thing across Wilkens Avenue last year. People had the street trees removed just like I did and they put smaller native trees in their backyards, then the city crew came through with the non profit and planted more street trees.
In this area the space between the sidewalk and the street is very narrow, twenty inches, maybe a little more. It’s not big enough for healthy tall trees, anything bigger than a small redbud becomes weak and falls on the cars or people, or damages the plumbing lines. I don’t know why the city won’t develop a better program. It’s sad going to neighborhood meetings and hearing the same complaints twenty years later, no improvement, same excuses. The city doesn’t listen to residents.
I’m glad the city isn’t still planting these Bradford pears this year, the ones on my street were definitely planted by the city.
[deleted] t1_jdhzt3d wrote
They spread like wild on their own
woodspaths t1_jdije2w wrote
The city does a HORRIBLE job w trees. Our neighborhood association in upper fells is how I finally got a new tree. I dug the hole and planted it too
Animanialmanac t1_jditas2 wrote
I wonder if there are too many vacancies in the arborist department, maybe no one works there anymore. A tree fell on my street last year, we reported it as leaning, in need of pruning back in 2020. It’s been lying on the ground for at least eight months since it fell in the storm. I called 311, my neighbors called 311. One young man cut the larger part of the trunk so it doesn’t block the road but the base still sits on the sidewalk and grassy area where it fell.
woodspaths t1_jdj4opl wrote
Unreal. Sad to say I moved after living in fells for 18 years but this is the shit that sends ppl on their way
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