Skip to main content

Featured

Swapping Huckleberries

Himalayan Honeysuckle ( Vaccinium glauco album)  Himalayan Honeysuckle ( Vaccinium glauco album) has been an attractive feature along our north-facing foundation since I planted it in 2016. You will have to take my word for it since I cannot locate a photo although I know one exists somewhere in the realm of the Internet or floating on a cloud somewhere.  I did locate a photo of how it looked when it was first planted - It took a few years to fill out but it did so nicely to an attractive mound about 2 feet high by 3 feet wide.  Last year, it started to look bad.  I cut it back but it had not improved and this is how it looked a few weeks ago - I decided to rip it out and plant another huckleberry - this time Vaccinium ovatum , more commonly known as the "Evergreen Huckleberry".  This is a plant that I've wanted for ages and kept putting off getting one because I could not find a good place for it. By most accounts, this is an amazing plant, a native one and excellent for

Why I don't recommend Bradford Pears



Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

Comments

  1. OMG, Phillip. So sorry. As a tree and shrub expert I always told my potential Bradford Pear buyers that they had a tendency to split or break in high winds. BTW, love your header photo.

    Look forward to meeting you here in my new neck of the woods at Springfling Asheville in May. Just started up my new blog at http://www.sweethomeand garden carolina.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Carolyn, this wasn't my tree. I don't have any Bradford Pears. I saw several in town that wound up like this after the storms on Friday. I will check out your blog!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Phillip,
    I'm no fan of them either. I'd plant an American Plum instead, the butterflies and bees love the flowers and critters like the fruit, no brainer to me.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yup there's always some around here like that too after severe storms.

    ReplyDelete
  5. They have mostly been blown out of our area too.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Amen. In Connecticut we lost every single Bradford pear in town when heavy wet snow hit in October. Some fell over, some imploded in a flat circle, and the few left standing had more than half their canopies broken at odd angles and cracked up in total confusion. It will be interesting to see if malls and municipalities replant the same pears!

    ReplyDelete
  7. oh Dear! Love your new header Phillip!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I never miss an opportunity to trash talk this tree.

    ReplyDelete
  9. The Bradfords are so pretty, but about three years ago a gentleman from Auburn spoke here about them. Not only did he enumerate all that could happen to them, he mentioned financial liability. Nuff said on that one.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I love fringe trees. I need to continue with my series "bradford pears not" on my blog. Spring flowers started blooming & I got side track. Mom called me after the April tornado's at 4 in the morning and the only thing she was worried about was the big limb which fell off of hers. I told her well they do that. When the neighbor came to cut the limb up I told her to get him to cut the whole thing down as it will continue. The next storm she called & every limb had broken in a circle. I told her again well they do that. She got mad at me for my lack of sympathy. Mary

    ReplyDelete
  11. Well, this is crap, huh?! Glad its not yours. It could have at least had the manners to fully make it through its bloom season before keeling over.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts