Saturday’s Concord Monitor featured an article on “invasive” Callery pear trees (Associated Press, 3/18). As a landscape architect, I believe in New England the Callery pear tree or any of its varieties are not an invasive. In the southern part of the United States, they are invasive. The cooler climate in New England and the fact the fruit are eaten by the birds limits the germination of the fruit of the Callery pear. A mature tree does have weak branching and will tend to break apart during high wind and heavy wet snow events. The article does not say that there are stronger alternative varieties that are more tolerant. Those varieties are “Aristocrat” pear and “Chanticleer” pears.
These ornamental trees do have profuse flowering every spring. Flowers are not fragrant and but have a pungent smell. The flowers on these trees are pollinators that attract bees and help the bee population do its work. The fall color is deep red to orange and lasts for a long period of time. The list of alternative trees the article suggests do not come close to the characteristics of the pear tree and a couple of them are subject to the same diseases that the pear is subject to. It’s safe to plant Aristocrat or Chanticleer varieties of pear trees in New England, they will not invade your yard here in New Hampshire. The Callery pear is not listed on New Hampshire’s Department of Agriculture list of invasive species list.
Robert Pollock
New Hampton