Saturday the 14th

A beautiful sunny day close to 70 degrees. This encouraged the Bradford Pear blooms to prematurely fully open. They then should have lasted for at least 12 days. But being wide open and full of water—visually beautiful, they were also biologically vulnerable.

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Sunday the 15th
Abrupt change

The temperature dropped to around freezing & thus began stressing flower tissues. A **35–60 mph wind** for the full day then caused the drying of exposed petals and floral parts to accelerate. That wind also battered the blossoms while they were already cold stressed.

So, by the time night came, the above flowers were partly dried, stressed, and physically beaten up, but not yet dead.

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Monday the 16th
Overnight: a 9°F hard freeze hit

This is where the real kill happened. .
Any remaining hydrated cells in petals ruptured.
Thus, brown mushy dead flowers..

Later on the 16th (today), the high was only in the lower 20's and with a 20-mph wind. However, the damage was already done. This afternoon and the above photo only revealed the damage of the brown collapsed dead blooms that should really be pristine white and full of life.

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This whole story is about a collision of the Bradford pear flowers waking up early & then, one day of strong cold winds, followed by a lethal overnight freeze.

Isn't early Spring interesting? I'm going to miss enjoying the beautiful white Bradford Pear flowers this year. Fortunately, I did at least get a few photos of the tree yesterday in the cold and wind and snow: https://pbase.com/britestar/image/176176061