Flowering Pear for Smaller Landscapes

Marianne C. Ophardt
Washington State University Cooperative Extension
Area Extension Agent  

The phrase, "Right tree, right place,"  is a common one used when talking about selecting trees for different locations in the landscape.  Too often homeowners don't consider how large a tree will eventually grow and what's in its way when it gets there. Homeowners frequently plant trees that quickly reach the desirable size and then keep growing and growing.  This results in trees that are much too large for the situation.  Large trees often outgrow their space and unbalance the landscape design, dwarfing the house and other landscape plants.  Large trees may also interfere with overhead utilities or other permanent features of the landscape. Repeated pruning will be required to keep these trees from dominating the landscape or interfering with structures and utilities.

The simple answer is to select smaller trees... those that don't grow so tall or large. They don't require pruning to keep them under 40 feet tall and they don't overwhelm the landscape.  There are a number of excellent choices that will perform well in this region.  The flowering pear is good small tree for smaller landscapes.  USDA researchers were the first to recogniz the potential of the callery pear (Pyrus calleryana) .  This tree was initially used as breeding stock and as an understock for fruit tree production.  It was native to sloped areas and swamps in China. The original species can grow up to a height of fifty feet but various cultivars are much shorter, most not reaching over 45 feet when they are thirty years old.  Several cultivars only reach a height of 35 to 40 feet. 

Callery pears have become quite popular over the years and may be a bit overused, but they perform well under local soil and climate conditions.  They also can tolerate drier soil conditions.  Their biggest problem is poor branching angles on some cultivars which can lead to limb breakage in ice storms or heavy snow loads like we saw last winter. `Bradford,' one of the first cultivars available, is very prone to limb breakage. 

`Autumn Blaze' is a popular Callery pear cultivar because of its hardiness, good fall color, and sturdy branch structure. It's mature height is 30 feet. However, it does develop some thorns and it's very susceptible to fire blight disease.