Wallace Thomas

Pears can be poached, sautéed, and baked in crisps, cobblers, pies, tarts, or wrapped in pastry. They can also cooked and pureed and used in… Read More »What Can I Do With Tiny Pears?

Pruning is essential if you want to maintain an ornamental pear tree’s balanced appearance. Cutting back too much each year, however, will result in fewer… Read More »Should You Prune Ornamental Pear Trees?

Look for any fruit on the tree. An ornamental pear tree will have no fruit or small brown fruit produced after the bloom period. A… Read More »How Can You Tell An Ornamental Pear Tree?

How to use overripe pears Use them in baking. The more a pear ripens, the sweeter it gets, so overripe pears make the sweetest, juiciest… Read More »What Can I Do With Ripe Bartlett Pears?

Bradford pear trees grow large at maturity — up to 30 feet high and 25 feet wide. Young, feeder roots reach as far as the… Read More »How Deep Do Bradford Pear Tree Roots Go?

Not native to Texas, Bradford pears are not long-lived, and generally only last for about 20-25 years. As they age, Bradford pears become prone to… Read More »Are Bradford Pear Trees Native To Texas?

Bradford pear is a variety of Callery pear (Pyrus calleryana), an ornamental fruit tree that is wreaking havoc along roadsides, ditch banks, farm fields and… Read More »Which Pear Trees Are Invasive?

Callery pears. Callery pears are an aggressive invasive species. The stems and branches possess thorns (sometimes up to 3” long!), they can spread by seed… Read More »What Kind Of Pear Tree Has Thorns On It?

Description. Native to the Sonoran desert, the purple prickly pear grows in clumps, usually to about 4 feet tall by 5 feet wide. Is there… Read More »Where Do Purple Pears Grow?