PLANTS and flowers across Oxfordshire have been tricked into a second bloom as summery weather extends into the autumn months.

Gardeners across the county are just as confused as the flora, with trees sprouting spring blossom and flowers such as roses and dahlias continuing to appear well beyond their expected season.

Bob Owen, of Cowley, who won an award for his back garden at this year's Oxford in Bloom festival, said: "I've never seen the garden looking so good.

"Normally everything's gone by now. The pagonias have probably lasted six weeks longer this year.

"During the heat wave, nothing really grew. It made the garden dormant. But it looks better this autumn than it did in the summer."

This is Oxfordshire's longest summer since records began in 1689, with record temperatures nationally in July and September - and yesterday, it was another glorious day in Oxford with blue sky and sunshine.

Janet Keene, secretary of Oxford Urban Wildlife Group, said: "It is really a bit surprising. I have noticed some odd things in the wild and gardens. There have been violets out recently and this is the middle of October."

Visitors to the Oxford Botanic Garden have been enjoying the especially vibrant autumn border this year, said one staff member.

In Headington, keen gardener Stephanie Jenkins still has flowers on her yukka and fuschias.

She said: "It is an amazing year. Nothing has lost its leaves yet. The apple tree has got all its leaves and all the deciduous plants, which look bare in winter, are not deciduous. It never used to be like this."

Guy Barter, head of advisory services at the Royal Horticultural Society, believes that not just high temperatures, but a mixture of low frost damage in the spring, a hot summer and lots of autumn rain has created good conditions for gardens.

He said: "This unusual combination of events means that plants are still flowering. Bananas have been appearing as far north as Norfolk, so there could be some in Oxfordshire too.

"The weather, combined with Oxford's special continental climate, means that we would expect apples, cherries, pears and plums to do especially well in the region next year."

There are all the signs that this October could be another record-breaker for Oxfordshire, with a mean temperature across the county so far of 13.5C, compared to the hottest ever, 13.4C for the whole month, in 2001.

During the summer, temperates often reached around 30C in Oxford.

A spokesman for the Met Office said: "This continues the trend from right through the summer. It's unsurprising to see flowers and trees with a second bloom."

"Over the coming 40 or 50 years we expect to see an increase in heatwave conditions."

Although the Met Office warns against jumping to conclusions based on the unusual weather of a single year, its meteorologists say that soon these fears about freak weather conditions caused by global warming could outstrip gardeners' delight at late-blooming plants.