I noticed, right after this summer's heat wave broke, (which incidentally, seemed shorter than the previous two summer's), that our pear tree had bloomed. Ours aborted the little fruit. But it sounds like yours did not! My guess is that next year's buds flowered then.

It will be interesting to see if we get flowers again in spring of 2009.

George

I sure hope they bloom next spring. Another strange thing we noticed this year was the amount of sun our front yard gets. We have lived here since 2000, our house faces north and this is the first time the late afternoon sun has ever been on our porch.

Sometimes extremely hot or extremely dry weather, or a combination of the two, sends many plants (like the pears) into a false dormancy.

You see this phenomenon often on forsythia, ornamental pears, and redbuds, and also with spring-blooming wildflowers like Indian Paintbrush, but it can happen with many different plants. Sometimes you see signs of heat- or drought-induced dormancy like withering of the leaves or excessive leaf drop, and sometimes you don't. Then, as the weather cools or as rain falls and the heat wave breaks, the dormancy ends and the plants bloom and set seed or fruit.

When my trees go through a false dormancy and bloom/fruit in late summer to late fall, they always regroup and bloom/fruit just fine the following spring. The key would be that they need some moisture in the winter to help them form new buds since they ones they formed in the summer went ahead and bloomed/fruited prematurely this year.

As for the sun appearing on the porch, I know there is an explanation, but I can't remember what it is. I think it has to do with some tilting of the earth on its axis, which is normal and I think is referred to as a "wobble".

Dawn