Luckily, haven't found any seedlings yet. There are only 2 BP's that I'm aware of, in this neighborhood and as I am a very lucky person, they are on properties adjacent to mine.:The clueless ones next door purchased one for it's delicious fruit? and the one at the rear, bought it to replace a beautiful pink-flowering Dogwood, because his wife doesn't like pink and wanted a white-flowering tree.
He is also the dodo that reached into my garden and cut a Lilac down, as a favor, because he was sure it was a Privet, while only a few feet away, in his yard, was a 5', genuine Privet, untouched. Happy to report, that later on, while I was working in that area, his Privet disappeared, roots and all. Amazing!:Rb

Rb, you're a trip!

We used to have two BP's in our postage stamp size front lawn (can you imagine?) Now, just one. We hope to replace it with something more interesting sooner than later. We do get the seedlings every year. I'm not sure if there are more now than before, but it does seem like a lot for a "sterile" tree.

Esh, thanks for the heads up and photos. I - unfortunately - live in a 20-something year old neighborhood...just when the BP became the "in" thing. Which means they are all fully grown and now dieing the slow "one limb at a time during a storm" death.

Neighbor on one side has about 5-6 of them, neighbor on the other has 1, and then they're all up & down the street. Not only are they poorly structured trees, but they STINK! I hate when they bloom. :(

We have some kind of pear tree that was here when we purchased the house. It doesn't appear to be a Bradford, but similar. It puts out thousands of those little seedlings, which get mowed or pulled up all summer. I wouldn't mind getting rid of it, but my husband likes it because of the white blooms :-( A lot of our neighbors have Bradfords, sorry to say. Another thing we have that is dang near impossible to get rid of is black locust.

I wouldn't mind getting rid of it, but my husband likes it because of the white blooms :-(

Welcome to the club. Luckily, ours are 'dividing' themselves, and he's started thinking about putting in actual trees. We've got two bradfords and one other flavor of ornamental pear that fruits and spreads its babies far and wide. Eugh.

We've got two bradfords and one other flavor of ornamental pear

That's where people do themselves in. Once you get two different kinds, neither one is sterile any longer.

Good luck with your spouses ... maybe the key is to get them to like something else until they start plotting what they can take out so that they can have their new favorite!! Or maybe a bottle of vinegar applied at the base of the tree will hurry the demise ....

My wife really liked bradford pears and privits, but after years of talking... and showing her damaged trees... and wild, overgrown privits... and taking her to Walter Reeves at the home show, she has finally come around.

Does anyone know what the privet looking large bushes/small trees that are blooming now are? They are multi-stemmed, up to 15+ feet tall and covered with small white blooms on somewhat arching branches. There are some in older yards and they seem to have taken over uncultivated areas all over the north Georgia, SC and NC area. Are they a real healthy native or evil invader?

They ARE privet. Chinese privet - the evil invader itself. I can hardly stand to drive around these days, it makes me ill to see how many there are. Imagine how many seeds all that creates!!

Hey, maybe we should get some Ligustrum weevils?

... the ligustrum weevil may be considered a beneficial species in natural areas that have been invaded by Chinese privet. Following its introduction into the United States in 1852 (Dirr 1983), Chinese privet eventually escaped cultivation, and by 1932 had become naturalized across the southeastern United States (Small 1933). Chinese privet ranges from Connecticut to Texas (USDA, NRCS 2004), and is considered an invasive weed in the southeastern Unites States (Dirr 1983, Nelson 1996), including north Florida, Alabama, Georgia (Godfrey 1988), Mississippi (Goddard 1992) and Tennessee (Faulkner et al. 1989). Songbirds and bobwhite quail are primarily responsible for spreading the plant by ingesting the fruits and dispersing the seeds (MacRae 1980). In some cases, Chinese privet forms dense thickets that displace more desirable native vegetation (Faulkner et al. 1989). According to Goddard (1992), dense stands of this weedy shrub also may harbor populations of the blacklegged or deer tick, Ixodes scapularis Say, a suspected vector of Lyme disease in the southern United States (Oliver 1989).

By attacking the seeds of Chinese privet, the ligustrum weevil may be important for adventive biological control of this invasive weed. As an immigrant natural enemy of Ligustrum spp., the ligustrum weevil may be capable of reducing the spread of Chinese privet into new areas and/or the densities of existing stands.

Apparently some ligustrum weevils have already made it into the U.S. ... oh and they came in on some infected plants that were imported. Although this turned out perhaps for the good, we have gotten way too many new pests this way!

Here is a link that might be useful: source

Ugh! I really don't like Privet. I was at the Grower's Outlet yesterday, and saw many people buying the variegated kind. a person I knew was buying some, and I said, "You know the variegated will revert, don't you?" He said, "No, they don't." But then he precedes to tell me that the bushes he has had for three years haven't. "But when a solid branch grows in, I cut the branch." he says. Um...so, they do revert. I don't understand why people like them. They're not attractive.

My bad. I got out of the car and checked and it is privet. I had not noticed it blooming so profusely in years before. My eyes were opened to the extent of the invasion. They are numerous along the roadways in new growth areas.

What natives are they out competing? Pines and Maples? Blackberries?

They are out competing any thing that is smaller - that includes tree seedlings, shrub seedlings, small shrubs (e.g.,low bush blueberries), perennials, wildflowers. The list is really too long to possibly say because it depends on where they are. When they invade wet areas and streambanks, they out compete the plants you would normally find there; when they invade drier areas and forests, the plants are different.

The harm they do as a result of this is to create a monoculture and monocultures reduce diversity. Many different native insects, birds and small mammals rely on a select group of plants ... reducing diversity in plants reduces the diversity of the organisms that depend on plants.

Many parks and organizations are trying to combat this problem with scheduled "privet pulls" especially in areas along rivers and streams. The same invasion you see on the roadside has quietly taken over "protected natural" areas. People think that once they set aside an area for protection, it is safe; but that is when invasive plants gain a foothold.

Here is a link that might be useful: Privet pulls as a monthly effort

The guys at the University of Florida kinda like them. I guess we don't have a consensus on invasive plants. Can nurseries sell Kudzu?

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/MG022

Wow, how irresponsible.

For those of you who don't know, Chinese privet is the "hedge" plant at the UGA stadium. When they dismantled the hedge several years ago during the Olympics, alumni and supporters were clamoring to get a piece of it.

As far as I know they replanted it (but they keep it sheared so I doubt it puts out seed ...).

Here is a link that might be useful: The hedges

Esh,
Is Japanese privet also invasive, or only Chinese privet? Are both flowering at the moment?

HA!! Now I know what I was pulling up all freaking afternoon last week! We have three that came with the house. Those seedlings are just a HUGE mess!!

Yes, mayland, Japanese privet is considered invasive as well and both are flowering now. The japanese one has much larger leaves, it is usually called "waxleaf" privet. Lately, this plant is very popular with landscapers installing large professional landscapes.

A couple of years ago a development went in near Harry's in Alpharetta. I cheered when I saw how much chinese privet got pulled out. I gasped in horror when they replanted the area with japanese privet.

The Director of Planning in my town put it very well, calling privet "the evergreen kudzu". Well said, huh?

I am still eliminating it from my property, but now only have small sprouts emerge. And the first garden job I had when I moved here was removing FOUR huge Bradfords.

Rosie in Sugar Hill

I am amazed at all the pear seedlings this year, I have never really noticed them in any great quantity before. Although i doubt they will survive in the area behind my yard anyway since the privet and honeysuckle will surely smother them out.