sam_md No i did not get a chance to do that. But, i might actually look up information about the new atlas. This dwarf version i want is so small and cute, i cannot resist. It is just terribly hard to find and many nurseries i contact have never even heard of it. I found one company (baylaurelnursery.com) that might be able to get it as one of there local suppliers grows it but i would have to buy 5 trees. The wholesale company will not sale bay laurel nursery just one. My nurseries her in arkansas cannot get it or they also say it will be hard for them to get just one tree. But a mail order nursery out of PA said that they will have it in stock next spring so i am keeping my fingers crossed. I also wonder if it is grafted or if a cutting or seeds will also produce a dwarf version? If my yard was not so small i would have no problem planting the original bradford but i fear in time that if i do plant it, it might break and cause damage to my home. I just cannot get enough of the lolli-pop, oval-round shape of the tree. It is so uniform and pretty. But i dont think it is listed as invasive in Arkansas, although it is planted EVERYWHERE and 90% of them are broken and in terible ugly shape. My church has the nicest older one that i have seen. It has not fell apart yet. Im hoping that with the dwarf version there will be less chance of breakage since it will stay only 15-20ft.

A twig of a tree will be that size after just 4 yrs. They sound like small trees to me. My parents (*sigh*) have one that is probably 25 ft tall. Produces lots of little pears too. It doesn't cast much, if any of what I'd call shade. Last year I dug out a 15 ft tall Norway Maple here in my yard. It wasn't hard and in it's place is now a Catalpa. It's almost the same size and I only paid $20 for it. A Chinquapin Oak (Quercus muehlenbergii) planted as a small tree, can grow 2 to 4 ft a year. It sounds like your husband is trying to convince himself to keep the pears...the neighbors have them, nurseries sell them (which always reminds me of my parents and their question if somebody else had something and I wanted it, if they jumped off a bridge, would I?) shade, trees take too long to grow etc etc. You can also argue that some day those trees are going to be a lot bigger than they are right now and will be harder to take down. Unless they do what they're known to do and just fall apart at 20 yrs of age. At 8 or 10 ft. your husband and a chainsaw can take care of them easily. And of course this is all just my opinion...;)

Yea that smell is plenty bad. Here is something else I noticed. The newest McMansions which are spaced out with identical roofs in one of the most expensive looking gated communities and which is still growing as new houses are added has Callery Pears neatly spaced perfectly along every single street and lined up all along the outer edge of the wall that surrounds the G. C.. On the inner streets are lines of them perfectly spaced, its as if the whole place is done up in them. The only other trees you see are pines. Visually you see this landscaped version and right next to it in the wild part is a thicker than what you would think possible Callery forest, its like a story unfolding showing a timeline of events. Unbelievable. I checked our states list and Callery Pear is on the invasive list but not the banned list. Purple loosestrife is on the banned list, illegal to grow or sell here.

why, with the enormous range of fabulous small trees available for our delight, would anyone choose to grow one species only? Lack of imagination or interest - most property owners are not hobbyist gardeners - and a belief that formal effects like shearing of trees and shrubs, planting rows of one kind are sophisticated. Also some are wary of plants they haven't already seen having been proven to be able to grow and persist in their area. I can see some basis for this as both warehouse store plant departments and independent garden centers in my area do stock a lot of marginally hardy or outright tender plants which are often displayed among more cold tolerant kinds, thereby seeming to imply that they are all suitable for year around outdoor use of indefinite duration. And speaking of warehouse store plant departments, with their tiny range of plant varieties - those operations now have a large percentage of the US nursery stock sales. I have seen post after post on the internet referring to these as "the nursery". Plus in the current market trees are moving so slowly I wonder why any of the large independent outlets here are bothering to stock any kind of a range or quantity of them. And in fact one of the bigger operations in the area did apparently cut way back on these, so that for at least a few years now their "tree line" has been this little area like is routinely seen at warehouse stores.