Is my pear tree dead?

[IamtheDuchessstill]

I have lived here for 2 years and know nothing about gardening, and I don't think the previous owners were that keen either, though we were vey pleased to inherit a lovely pear-tree. The last two years it blossomed and produced loads of lovely pears. We did nothing - except eat the pears.

I'm not sure exactly when it blossomed last year, but I'm sure it had by now. This year - nothing yet. There do seem to be small buds on it, but I can't be sure. I know (now) that we should have pruned it, but would two years of not doing so kill a well-established tree?

I have tried googling to see flowering times, but it seems to vary and I don't know what variety it is. Ex-h says it doesn't look dead to him, but he knows about as a much as I do. Does anyone have any ideas or advice please?

If there are buds on it then it is fine. Lost of fruit trees were early last year due in part to a lack of winter [2 frosts all 2013/14 wintertime]. Also, fruit trees tend to fruit one year well, and then fruit less the next year and then fruit well the year after.

If it has buds coming then it should be fine. None of our fruit trees are flowering yet.

Pruning, fruit tree pruning is a bit of a dark art - if you don't know how to do it to promote fruit buds, then you perhaps need to do alot of research before you prune. And yes you can prune fruit trees that have not been pruned for two years. But you do have to do it properly.

We have a pear tree. The pear is just coming into bud - no leaves yet. Ours is a big, old tree. I have no idea when it was last pruned. Not sure if they are like apple trees where some branches bear fruit, but some don't?

Anyway, it's very early yet. Our tree is a Conference - the fruit is ready later in the year so late September / first half of October

Seems like I was panicking for nothing then - I had convinced myself that it was in blossom last year for ds's birthday party (19th March), but maybe not .

Thanks both.

No, you're quite possibly right. My apple tree came out really far too early last year in an unseasonable spell of warm weather, and it was a bit of a disaster because there were no pollinators around to deal with it, so I didn't get much of a crop. The weather reverted to being terrible again, and the high wind blew all the petals off.

Hopefully this year things will sync up a bit better!

A couple of years ago we only got three immature pears from our tree - the wind blew all the blossom off. There are lots of variables which can affect them.

My neighbours pear is only just breaking into blossom. It is never pruned but produces pears each year. I have no idea how they will reach the pears as it is about 12 feet tall.

More likely to kill it by pruning than by not pruning, iyswim! If you leave it you can't go wrong. Trust in nature.

We have some newly planted pears and both have buds, one is an 'Onward' and the other is random from B&Q...next door has an enormous one which has large buds. Give it a while and see what happens.

Btw I never managed to get any decent pears off our old one, either too hard and green to eat or the insects got them. Or they fell off.

My pear has only just got buds on now, not yet blossoming.

We inherited a pear tree which was strangled by ivy. We cut the ivy off and this is the first year it has buds. Hoping for some pears this year.