Different Types of Flowering Pear Trees
- The European pear tree encompasses the Pyrus communis species that produce edible fruit also puts out massive bunches of white flowers in the early spring. The trees prefer loamy, well-drained soil, but can stand wet soils better than most other fruit trees. These pear trees are hardy in USDA zones 4 to 9.
- Pyrus pyrifolia and Pyrus ussuriensis, the Asian pear, also produce fruit, but are more likely to be grown as ornamentals even if they didn't bear fruit, according to Sunset Magazine, because of their prodigious flowering and their glossy green leaves. These pears will grow in almost any soil except those that are rocky and shallow, including heavy clay. They are hardy in USDA zones 4 to 9.
- The evergreen pear, Pyrus kawakamii, is a Taiwanese species with drooping branches and oval leaves, this pear produces masses of white flowers in late winter and early spring. It's not fussy about the soil it is planted in, but it will grow into a sprawling shrub if you don't prune it regularly. The small fruits are inedible. The trees are hardy in USDA zones 5 to 8.
- Pyrus calleryana, the callery pear, can grow to 50 feet tall and wide at maturity. Like many pear trees, it will grow in almost any soil. It has oval, scalloped, leather green leaves that turn reddish-purple in autumn. The tree flowers early in the spring and produces small, inedible fruit. It is also called the Bradford pear. These trees are hardy in USDA zones 5 to 9.
- The weeping willow-leafed pear, Pyrus salicifolia "Pendula," is a smaller pear species that grows to about 15 feet tall and 12 feet wide, this tree has silvery, willow-like leaves and a weeping habit. The flowers appear at about the same times as the leaves start to emerge. New leaves start out silvery white and then gradually turn silvery green. The trees are hardy in USDA zones 4 to 7.
