White Flowers Mean Pear, Apple Trees, Dogwood Later

It happened this weekend, the sudden blooming of white-flowered-trees across the Upper Cumberland.

Lots of Dogwood Trees blooming, right? Wrong. Putnam County Agriculture Extension Agent Wayne Key said the region sees different kinds of pear, apple, dogwood, and magnolia trees with white flowers over the course of the spring season. Key said both flowering and fruiting pear and apple trees are blooming now

“Some of these different species, they don’t all bloom the same day,” Key said. “So we’ve not been through what we call dogwood winter in the agriculture world so we’ve not quite seen the dogwoods blooming yet, they have not quite gotten there. The Kousa dogwood, that Japanese variety I talked about earlier, has not started to bloom yet.”

Key said the Bradford and Callery pear trees have historically been used in local landscaping but are actually fairly invasive. Key said agriculture experts now encourage people to use native dogwood species if people want to add more trees to their property.

“They’re very hearty, disease and insect resistant, they have a beautiful, showy appearance,” Key said. “They’re not huge in their size and their growth pattern so they only get say twenty to thirty feet tall so they’re a very nice landscape plant.”

Key said dogwood trees do not start blooming until early May.

Key said dogwoods are a marginal tree, meaning they naturally like to grow on the edges of forests where the woods border locations like a pasture, hay field, or meadow. Key said the dogwood, magnolia, and Carolina Silverbell trees are all native species with white flowers that thrive in the local climate and are not prone to any particular issues like insects and diseases.

“They can call here at the UT extension office and we can give recommendations for herbicides and for fungicides to take care of those fruiting trees for us in the landscape for homeowners for example,” Key said. “But when it comes to the dogwoods and magnolias, they’re very hearty.”

Key said the invasive pear trees have branches with a more upright angle, meaning they have a tendency to break off in heavy windstorms. Key said those trees tend to do well for the first ten to fifteen years but ultimately the trees’ weak tissue and high moisture lead to issues in the future.

“Breeders are constantly developing different species of trees that flower, that produce a very showy bloom for the homeowners,” Key said. “So homeowners that are, if you’re seeing these kind of trees, you’re seeing them in the landscapes or in someone’s yard or you’re seeing them along the wood line or the wood edge, to pay attention to what those trees are and determine whether or not that’s something that would work well in their yard.”