It has happened before. In north Georgia, it's actually pretty common. Early-blooming fruit trees and bushes, like blueberries and pears, are very susceptible to March freezes. This cold season has had more than normal.
February was very warm for the second half of the month; it may have even gotten to 80 where I live (in Atlanta, it did reach that temperature). Most things started to come out of dormancy. Then things cooled in March. There have been a number of days with highs in the 50s and lows in the 20s. I had two mornings where the lows were 22 and 21. Both mornings, it was below 28 for hours, and below 25 for at least four hours. That pretty much trashed the blueberries for the year and it put a dent in the Kieffer pears that had already bloomed.
All is not lost--in the pictures above, there are a couple of fruits that may have survived, and my other two pears are blooming this year--the buds are not really open to any degree yet.
Blooms on the other two pears are a nice surprise. About 10 years ago, I planted Seckel and Magness pear trees, but they had never bloomed despite growing well. The Kieffers both got fireblight really bad a couple of years ago--I had to cut one back to the stump--but the Seckel and Magness were untouched. However, neither had bloomed. I even thought about tearing them out. Fortunately, they're blooming later. If there are no more low-20s mornings, I may actually get some fruit off of them.
The blueberries are probably about 90% lost. Alas.
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