Some of my friends know that I am an avid gardener. Over the past several years, I have been transforming both my front and backyard into something more of an mini-orchard/farm. The farmer in me enjoys the connection to the land, the work that is part of producing food, and the idea of self-sufficiency. But it’s definitely still a work-in-progress. My front yard is now a mini-orchard, with the lawn that used to grace it now gone and replaced with wood chips. (Some of my neighbors probably see it as as something of an eyesore; but I feel good about getting rid of the front lawn, which was purely ornamental and served no useful function (at least not to me) .)
This morning, as I was inspecting my fruit trees (in my suburban version of “walking the land,” something I used to do when we still lived in Vermont and had 2 acres of land for our house), I noticed this on one of my Asian Pear tree.
It appears to be a set of blossoms. In late September! After I just harvested a nice crop of pears just a month ago! Obviously, the tree is confused.
Ordinarily, fruit trees require some period (several months) of chill time before they will bloom and fruit again. However, we’ve had a rather hot summer. It is rather mysterious. In June, something similar happened to my blueberry bushes. One of them also set some blossoms, well after I had already picked all of the ripe berries. Those few additional berries just ripened recently. I had attributed that to a late bloom. But the blooms on the pear tree are a real anomaly. Very peculiar indeed.