Interesting.......I'm anxious to see the answers you get to this question. I have noticed a huge number of flowers on my two year old shrubs also.

Nah the winter will probably be just fine(whatever that's suppose to be, Michigan weather). When trees and shrubs do this, it usually just means that they are mature enough to reproduce or that they are really happy. It's probably all that rain we had last year back when we got a month of rain in 4 days.

I think its just a bumper crop year.My apple trees are loaded this year.When I was a kid our cherry trees one year hardly gave any fruit and then maybe next year it was so many fruits on trees.

I'm seeing the same thing. In this area we had a very large amount of rain last year throughout the entire growing season. Since this year's flower buds were produced last year, during that extremely favorable season, they are abundant.

Rain? what is that?

My favorite local weather station has turned off the radar to save money...no blips on there to report so it was wasting money. Ha Ha
Seriously, I have noticed weird shifts here as well, like the hickory trees. I think it could be compensation for the bust crop last year. I am already finding TONS of pignuts under the trees, and these don't usually get really started until later in July. The elderberries look good so far, but the balckberries are probably going to fizzle. THey are nothing more than tiny hard nubs full of seeds, with hardly any pulp. I still have a gallon in the freezer from last year, and a cobbler does have a nice ring to it!
THere were lots of flowers on the persimmon trees but I don't know just yet how pollination went. I was VERY lazy this spring and don't even know how the pawpaw trees are doing or how flowering went, but I would guess they will do a lot better than last year.

I would think having a mild winter might increase the number of flying insects that pollinate your shrubs the following summer. Heavy berries predicting the next winter seems a little hard to believe though. Maybe a neighbor has gotten some beehives for honey or just a difference in your last frost date this year that increased the number of blooms or a combination of things. Sounds like good news for your birds.

We have tons of seeds on all the trees (haven't checked out the hickory or the walnuts yet), and have tons of pinecones. I was thinking, for us in this area, it was a reaction to the severe ice storm we had with tons of damage. Like maybe when they get stressed, they try to really rally the next year, in case they feel they are threatened? I, like Dirtgirl, had almost NO hickory nuts or walnuts last year.......so it will be interesting seeing if they really pick up this year.
I think there is a code out there, that we humans might not be able to always break. YAY!! I love it when there are things that we silly humans just can't figure out!

I have three cherry trees. All three are producing like crazy this year. Guess it's a combination of a snowy but short winter, cool wet spring and lots of sun May and June.