It is not and will not be illegal to have Bradford pears growing in your yard. However, they are now on the State Plant Pest list and beginning October first, two thousand twenty-four, nurseries will no longer sell Bradford pears or any other cultivar of the invasive flowering pear, Pyrus calleryanna. Seeds from China were originally brought to the United States to serve as rootstock to help the edible pear industry survive a terrible tree disease. Fields with mature trees from these seeds just sat around for decades until someone noticed that one particular tree flowered profusely, had beautiful fall color, perfect round shape, no thorns, and grew like a weed. This tree was named Bradford Pear and it was self-infertile so produced no viable seeds. Sadly, the story does not stop there.