Author Topic: How good is fruitless pear as nectar/pollen source (Read 2191 times)

Dallasbeek · « **on:** March 08, 2018, 10:32:34 pm »

Bradford pears (worthless but pretty trash trees) are blooming in my area. How good are they as a source of nectar/pollen for bees? All I know is they clog the skimmer of my pool and the limbs break easily.

iddee · « **Reply #1 on:** March 08, 2018, 10:56:48 pm »

Worthless to the bees. They get less than the energy it takes to collect it

Dallasbeek · « **Reply #2 on:** March 09, 2018, 12:41:28 am »

Just trash trees. Builders plant them because they are cheap, grow fast, have pretty blooms, but take up space a good tree could tree could occupy. The only good thing about them is that their branch structure is weak, so limbs split down the trunk and they die early. I had hoped they could at least feed some bees. Thanks, Wally.

bwallace23350 · « **Reply #3 on:** March 09, 2018, 10:40:18 am »

Odd I would have assumed they would have been decent as I do believe regular pear trees are

MikeyN.C. · « **Reply #4 on:** March 09, 2018, 06:50:49 pm »

I think it's a callery pear from china. Year's ago a friend (landscaper) showed me how they were grafted to native pear root balls , so the tree could grow ( showed me graf lines)

SoManyCats · « **Reply #5 on:** March 09, 2018, 08:11:54 pm »

The wife's family has a large plot of land. We walked it this week. it has a large number of wild bradford pears. (They say they are infertile. Not so much.) It also has a number of wild plums. We noticed consistently there would be a 4 ft tall plum tree that is covered with bees right next to a 30 ft tall bradford pear with not a bee on it.

The15thMember · « **Reply #6 on:** March 10, 2018, 03:30:50 pm »

Hm, this is strange to me. At my old house I had a big flowering tree that I thought was a Bradford pear, and it was always covered in bees. Maybe it was a different variety or something.