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We had a budding landscape designer do our landscaping when we first bought our house as her first design. We had always admired the bradford pear trees for their beautiful and graceful shape. So we agreed when she suggested two Bradfords for our front yard. Indeed they were beautiful, and grew fairly quickly, providing both shade and privacy from the road.
But as they grew bigger and bigger, they also became very fragile, with huge limbs being brought down in moderate windstorms, and then, in a biggie, both were laid across our driveway. In addition, in the Spring, the trees would bloom, but the blooms, instead of offering a pleasant fragrance, stunk to high heaven.
So I am off Bradfords. We have replaced one of the downed Bradfords with a Lilac tree which seems to be doing well.
There are Bradford Pears everywhere you look in the Kansas City area. Being new home owners 13 years ago & unfamiliar with Bradford Pears, we decided to plant one in our front yard. Who knew the problem with them? We certainly didn't, but with every ice storm, we saw one by one all of the Bradford Pears in our neighborhood split in two. Ours was now 12 years old. We knew it was only a matter of time before it fell & damaged something, so late last fall, we had it cut down & removed. Now our concern is the one in our neighbor's yard, which is older, coming down into our yard. We're hoping to convince them that it would be wise to remove it.
Unlike you though, I never noticed a bad scent from the flowers.
