In Which I Contemplate the Murdering of Trees

My Bradford Pear trees are annoying.

They smell bad in spring when the blossoms come.

Their branches are too tight.

They scare me on windy days.

There’s mold growing on the ground from the WINTER shade because of those dense branches.

I’ve got too many “bad” trees — Bradford pear, purple leaf plum, black cherry — I’ve got surface roots and girdling roots and not enough space to plant good trees, like my baby gingkoes and Kentucky coffeetrees.

But to take these Bradford pears down would make me a tree murderer. Again.

Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.

If I call the tree guy today, I can probably have them down before the smell starts. Where’s that cheap tree guy’s number?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 27th, 2007 at 9:48 am and is filed under bradford pear, julie's trees. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

11 Responses to “In Which I Contemplate the Murdering of Trees”

1. Leon McDonald says:

   May 4, 2008 at 8:41 am

   We planted two bradford pear trees in 2003. One is now 12 to 14 ft tall and the trunk is 10 inches around. The other tree is 8 to 10 feet tall, very sparse and the base is 6 inches around. This tree looks very sickly. What do we do to get it to grow and look as good as the other bradford pear?

   Reply
2. Jeff Beckman says:

   April 8, 2007 at 12:10 pm

   My mother used to love seeing all of the white trees in Metuchen in April. Look!, white, white!

   How about planting a European Hornbeam. I need something for comparison.

   Reply
3. Judy Reynolds says:

   March 31, 2007 at 7:55 am

   Hi, I have just come across your blog – I have a question which is not related to your Bradford pears, but has been puzzling me. Where I walk the dogs, there are a lot of clumps of trees that are becoming one tree. It the trunks are less than 4 inches diameter, they are separate trees with roots all close together, but after they are about 8 inches, the trunks start growing together. What happens to the bark and growing cells that are on the inside of this? What do the growth rings look like after thay have grown together for 10 or 20 years? How strong are the joins? Are they subject to damage from the water freezing and thawing?
   Thanks, and I really enjoy what I have read so far
   Judy

   Reply
4. Martha Stoodley says:

   March 29, 2007 at 3:55 pm

   Hi -
   As a garden columnist and garden blogger for our local newspaper, I can only urge you to move to an easy to use blog software setup. Blogging is fun but should be easy on the writers.

   Your tree blog is great and I published the subscription information in my blog with a recommendation to both of my readers.

   Migrate over here but please leave the old blog entries available for our selfish pleasure.
   Martha in Muskogee OK

   Reply
5. Jules says:

   March 28, 2007 at 10:51 pm

   Thanks for the support, Pat! I think you were my very first Tree Grower’s Diary subscriber!
   

   Reply
6. Pat Lambdin says:

   March 28, 2007 at 3:52 pm

   I’ve really enjoyed your Tree Grower’s Diary and can certainly understand the frustration of dealing with the website rather than living and enjoying your family and trees. So, I agree with you in combining your two websites into one and I will happily sign up. Thanks so much for your great photos and entertaining info.

   Reply
7. Carter says:

   March 28, 2007 at 12:35 pm

   hi Julie, no problems with the ash tree whatsoever, but the emerald ash borer has been found in the neighboring suburbs, at this point I’m going to wait, it’s just very frustrating!

   Reply
8. Jules says:

   March 28, 2007 at 8:36 am

   Ugh, Bob, you’re KILLING me!

   Felipe, you have a really cool name. That would be the perfect name for a tree diarist!

   Carter, I wanna see a picture of that ash tree. What’s wrong with it?

   Reply
9. bob says:

   March 27, 2007 at 9:29 pm

   they’re my favorites

   Reply
10. Carter says:

    March 27, 2007 at 2:47 pm

    oooh, tough decision. I’m having a similar soul-searching regarding my going on 3 years-in-the-ground white ash; everyone is telling me it’s doomed, so part of me says I should remove it and start over now instead of waiting.

    but I just can’t bear to do it!

    Reply
11. Felipe Pereira says:

    March 27, 2007 at 1:51 pm

    Don’t kill the pear tree, it’s my namesake! Pereira is the portuguese word for “pear tree” so I have to defend my trees!

    Reply