For seven years, we have been telling the public about the negative aspects of the Bradford Pear, as being one of the five worst trees anyone could buy.

Now, The Baltimore Sun (August 17, 1997) has documented something even worse about it: limbs and whole trees falling, causing enormous property damage and injuring people. It's a shame most people wait until a tragedy strikes to act and remove those junk trees.

If you can't get their article to come up, write or call us and we'll send you a reprint of the August 17th story.

It's always nice to be right.

Thousands of these garbage-quality trees are planted all over the region and should be removed en masse everywhere. Bradford Pears are very fast growers, nice flowering in the Spring, but when they reach 15-20 feet, they will fall apart, sooner rather than later.

The Bradford's wood is so brittle from growing fast, a snow or ice storm will collapse the tree and bingo, firewood. The other main problem is the whorl, or where the large branches emanate from is a central point that weakens as the trees grow large, occasionally up to 35-50ft.

Remember The Blizzard of '96? So many fell apart that thousands of York County residents are still burning Bradford Pear firewood.

Hybridizing this tree was a very big mistake by the Nursery Industry. After being rushed prematurely into production in the 60's without benefit of field trials, it's faults are now being realized and the customer will have to pay again when the tree collapses, just as it begins to really mature and look nice. The so-called "new & improved" Bradford Pear is a sham also. Don't ever buy these trees either.

Any garden center or nursery that sells either the Bradford or Improved Bradford Pears is not worthy of your business. They're substandard operations. They know better than to sell a piece of junk, such as the Bradford Pear.

Good quality garden centers and nurserys will tell you the truth about such bad plant material; the seedy operations will lie to your face in favor of a quick sale and you'll pay dearly about 10 years down the road. Don't be fooled by them: demand quality flowering pears.

The Redspire, Aristocrat, Chanticleer, Trinity and Rancho are good quality, long- lived ornamental pears, worthy of purchasing. If a garden center or nursery directs you to one of these cultivars, they probably can be trusted with your concerns about plant material.