Quick to colour

John Moore, the head gardener at Churchill College, Cambridge, tends a wall of Boston ivy, one of the largest in Britain, which is turning red two months earlier than usual. While Britain is mourning the premature end to a soggy summer, arborists are predicting a stunning and lengthy autumn with vibrant displays of leaves. This year’s warm, dry spring may have prevented the sugars forming in trees which create the rich hues in their leaves. But the wet summer weather has helped them catch up, say experts, and it should result in colourful displays of foliage in the months ahead.