Occasionally, native plants, wildflowers, berries and others, bloom in fall. I have seen it on high bush cranberries, red osier dogwood, willows. wild iris, wild roses and more. This year it is lingonberries. I have noticed a lot of flowers appearing at the same time as berry harvesting. Considering the season, this second bloom is not surprising. Spring warm temperatures came early, and in my garden, Oct 1, the temperatures reached 60F! Despite the cool, rainy summer, the lingonberry grew, bloomed, matured fruit, and went dormant. The dormancy period is very short for lingonberries- about 4 weeks of chilling temperatures (40F or lower). With the long season, it is no surprise that flower buds broke dormancy and started to bloom again. Of course, it is wasted genes. No fruit will form. This fall flowering definitely impacts next season’s flowering and fruiting.
HortAlaska Berries 