Yes, I really did just take this picture yesterday morning. Yes, it is November and yes it’s been below 30 degrees at night the past couple of nights. So why in the world is our pear tree full of blooms? We did have a string of cold days in October followed by warm, even hot days which I think it what did it. I can’t seem to find anything online that talks about what happens when fruit trees bloom in autumn. Will this mean that we won’t have much fruit next summer? Will it bloom again in spring? One snippet I found said that trees that are damaged during summer sometimes bloom in autumn, however we haven’t even so much as given the poor tree a sideways glance, let alone damage it. I suppose only time will tell. I’ll report again next spring on how our poor pear tree is doing.
Has anyone else had their fruit trees bloom in autumn?
Just for proof of frost, the next photo in my camera, after the pear tree shot was taken was this one. See? Frosty!
I hold off pruning my apple and quince trees until January to try to keep them from flowering in the fall, what with the warming temps we’ve seen the past several years. My narcissus came up in October — instead of the normal February sprouting. I live in Los Angeles, but 10-20 years ago we seemed to have real winters — trees lost their leaves and there was the occasional frost. No more.
We are in Fresno. I have a fruitless (Bradford pear) tree that had several beautiful full clusters of blossoms appear about a week ago. At first I thought I was seeing things. Also on our morning walk, while most trees are turning beautiful autumn colors and/or losing leaves, I noticed a lilac tree that had bloomed earlier this year at the normal time but now had at least 12 clusters of lilacs. They didn’t appear to be 100 % healthy but the were full and there were more than a few. While we haven’t had official frost yet, there has been frost on the roofs, etc. And it hasn’t been warm enough to stimulate flowering in my opinion. STRANGE THINGS are happening !!!!
Wow. I’ve never seen it myself. But it makes for a gorgeous photo.
My precious new apricot tree bloomed about a week ago. The same variety in the same yard has nothing. I’m hoping they will still pollinate each other this spring!
Our apple trees, south of you, bloomed last year in November and I think the Anna apples are considering it this year. This year I’ll pull the blossoms, I think. They just didn’t do the trees any favors. The weather has them all confused.
I had an apple tree that flowered in late October once. This was in Maine and we hadn’t had a severe frost yet. The next season the tree bore very few apples, but it was an off year for that particular tree anyway, so I’m not sure if it would have borne more anyway. I asked my dad about this after I saw your post (he’s a biologist) and he told me it would probably bear less fruit next year, because making blossoms expends a lot of energy that the tree usually splits between blossoms and fruit production. Since it will have to put forth more blossoms in spring, it’s energy will be halved to produce fruit. Sorry
Thanks for the comment gardengala. What your dad says makes sense. Well, at least this is only our pear tree and not our apple tree. I won’t be as upset that we don’t have a bumper pear crop, but I’m always wishing for more apples.
I’m just catching up on some blog reading and had to comment on this gorgeous photo – gosh those pear flowers are beautiful I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a tree in bloom – had no idea they were so delicate and pretty.