I am standing aside, waiting to see what kind of responses you get :-)

Cleveland/callery pears are probably the most vilified trees encountered on this website and I can't imagine too many offering encouraging words about starting them from seed........intentionally.

Look up "pears from seed" on the web.

Hunter, flowering pears are hugely invasive, an environmental problem wherever they thrive. Since they so willingly grow wherever they are pooped from a bird's behind, I suspect that you can toss a handful of seeds into a blender, give them a whirl or two, and they would come up wherever you scattered them.

You are right about these plants changing from one generation to the next. They lose the form that attracted you in the first place and develop large thorns that makes them a scourge in the native woodlands and greenspaces where they have become so abundant.

What rhizo said about them being an invasive nuisance (seeding into wild areas due to birds) is totally correct unless you are far enough north that seeds don’t ripen, which isn’t the case here.

Because of the way genetics works, seed grown plants are not identical to the parent plant, the same way that you aren’t identical to your parents or your grandparents. Named trees aren’t produced by seed but by grafting. So your seed grown trees will likely be poorly shaped to withstand bad weather and thorny since that is what the species is like with the exception of selected types. (And even some of them are poorly able to deal with ice or heavy snow.). In all honesty, I think they are popular because they have flowers.and nice fall color, not because they are trees that are a long term investment or good for the environment.

After a few inches of wet snow:

I understand that it's considered invasive, maybe my tree doesn't spread as easily as others because I haven't had any new growths come up for years, I appreciate all of your concerns

One seldom sees them coming up in the same garden :-) That's one of the sneaky characteristics of an invasive species.....the ability to spread themselves (or with some unintended help) over often vast distances. Birds and other wildlife eat the fruit and then can deposit the seeds miles away. And there is no one around to weed out the germinated shoots, like what would typically happen in a cultivated garden.

btw, unless there is another callery pear clone close by to offer cross pollination, it is quite likely that the seeds from your tree are sterile. But I would not like to bet money on it :-)

Why on earth would you want to?

I haven't had a bad experience with mine yet so I wanted to see what happened, the tree I've had is stunning and caused my yard no troubles :)

Please chop down your bioweapon, much less spread any more of its spawn, for gawdsakes... TY - the planet.

Hunter, welcome to the tree forum, lol! I swear we are a friendly and helpful lot, you've just had the misfortune of entering with a question on a much hated tree. If your skin is thick enough, give us your zone and approximate location. Maybe we can begin again, making some suggestions for alternative selections. What is it that draws you to this tree over others? Color, shape, flowering?

I just literally replied on the "weakest tree" question about 3 minutes ago, and mentioned the Callery Pear Flowering pear as a weak tree. Those thorns on the wild seedlings will puncture a car/truck tire. I read that anyway, so I repeated it.

Along the highway headed South those seedlings are like a plague, all along the highway. Likely spread from 1 planted cultivar.

Haha it's fine, opinions are totally fine with me. I got mine from lowe's, it looked nice at the time and didn't do prior research but it's been about 3-4 years and it seemed to grow fast and took well. I get a lot of snow and cold here in zone 6 but this tree handles it easily. The white bloom on it is so beautiful during the spring, but like you said I'm open to other suggestions :)

Hunter, I don't have one, BUT, I've heard from many people on this forum that they eventually will split from the way they grow with a weak framework of growth. I like oaks myself, BUT, they may grow too huge for the room that you have in your yard. I don't grow many small trees, well, I only have 1 small tree in my yard, I have 1 Japanese Maple, I have a shrub, a Seven Son Flower shrub, anything else is a huge tree (potentially) in my yard. If you have the room, I say grow an oak, BUT, as for a flowering tree, I'm sure you can get many ideas on this forum, I like the Eastern Redbud tree. BUT, I don't have any flowering trees except for the Southern Magnolia, and I have the Seven sons flower Shrub that gets about as tall as a small tree. It has peeling bark like a Crepe Myrtle tree/shrub has, BUT, it's much hardier. I just purchased a new variety that blooms twice a year, once the flowers are red and then the flowers are white I THINK it's called Tower of Power OR Tower of Flowers, something like that. I just ordered it a couple days ago, so, I don't know how good it is yet. IF you have room though, plant an oak somewhere on your property, great trees.

I just saw my invoice from my order and it's Tower of bloom, NOT what I said in the post above. IF you are interested in getting one.

Hunter, I'm linking a 5 year old discussion that might be helpful. Thanks for sharing your zone (6). We still don't know your approx. location, which matters. We're not looking for an address, just state and nearest major city to make suggestions. There are some alternatives to pear in the link.

[Alternatives to Bradford and Cleveland Pears[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/alternatives-to-bradford-and-cleveland-pears-dsvw-vd~1726477)

Seriously, this is no joke!

Fayetteville (AR) offers a free tree to anyone who cuts down a Bradford pear

Bradford pears are considered an invasive species that can spread quickly and choke out the area’s native trees, shrubs and flowers.

In an effort to spread awareness and discourage the spread of invasive trees, city staff will give one native tree to any resident who cuts down a Bradford pear on their property.

Native tree species to be given away include American plum, flowering dogwood, eastern redbud, hawthorn, and serviceberry.

I have several of these trees in My yard in Colorado. I checked with Csu and they aren’t invasive here apparently. I Have The Cleveland select variety and they’ve been nice. I suppose down the road they could cause problems, but most don’t seem troublesome around here. I had no idea until this forum that they were such a hated tree!

There's lots of commercially prevalent ornamentals that have gone bananas on available land in the summer wet eastern half of the country that seldom make much headway away from irrigation systems in the summer dry western half.

Even here in the "rainy" Seattle area we get a pronounced summer drought every year that seriously limits the potential for wet summer adapted plants to become common outside of cultivation.

Interestingly, there's no sign, as yet, of these trees escaping into the wild in the British Isles. Plenty of moisture year round here. Why do you suppose that is?

Maybe your cloudy and mild conditions aren't favorable?

For the same reason many other US invasive species are not problematic there. Different growing conditions and climate that do not encourage the unfettered spread. Invasiveness of any species is highly locationally dependent.

I'm curious if only certain varieties of the callery pear are invasive, the cleveland select seems different

But what is that 'same reason'? The theory that it's summer moisture which promotes invasiveness can't be right. Is it perhaps lack of summer heat? Or of winter cold?

Callery pears are planted all over the place and don't appear to either spread or break down.

HJ, apparently you don't get it. It's not what you plant, it's what offspring result from the pears..and they're all callery pears, unless they're sterile and/or never flower, they are a problem to the rest of the world when they sprout elsewhere.

2 pears somewhere where they cross-pollinate=problems.

Floral, I doubt callery pears have been planted in the UK with the same degree of frequency as they have been here in the US, where they were touted for years as a nearly "perfect" tree for any landscape or street tree planting. Blocks and blocks of them and one planted in every garden by developers. At one time it was the most frequently planted tree in the country!! Calleries are also self-incompatible so need at least another clone to produce viable fruit/seeds. And your summers tend be very cool, as are ours here in the PNW, which tends to delay both the formation of fruit as well as it's ability to ripen. And that could well be the biggest factor governing their invasiveness.

Yes.

Well that's why mine doesn't spread, there are no other pears around me

HJ pollinating insects cover miles a day in their foraging so there will almost certainly be other pears within flying distance. Birds who eat the fruit also cover quite a distance and they will excrete the seeds far from your yard. You really can't tell if your tree has offspring in the surrounding area. They could be several miles away.

GG it's true Calleries haven't been planted here for more than a few decades. It used to be mostly cherries and crabs but pears are widespread now. There're several on the green at the end of my road. I'm out in the countryside quite a bit but haven't seen any seedlings yet. I'll keep an eye open. I do think it's probably summer heat rather than summer moisture that is the requirement for seeding around. Last summer we had a long hot dry spell and there are seedpods on my Hibiscus syriacus for the first time ever. Maybe with climate change Calleries will start seeding soon?