sand wrote:

We have a small pear tree in the garden which was already in the garden
when we moved in 10 years ago. the tree always produced small hard pears
which we could not eat. this year, the trea only had few leaves and few
flowers, they all died; now there is nothing on the tree and it looks
dead. could it be dead or maybe missed a season due to the lack of water
for 6 months in london? But few meters away from the pear tree we have a
mini willlow / salix, it burgeoned and that is it. Had few leaves which
died as well as the buds. it also looks dead -- not sure what is going
on --

Sounds like an over dose of weed n' feed (did you recently treat your
lawn) or an over spray of defolient... any signs of dead plants in
neighbor's gardens?