Woods turn blue, but a month late

While 2018 saw an early start to spring, the “beast from the east” delayed the blooming of bluebells in British woods by more than a month, the Woodland Trust has said.

Carpets of the flowers are now turning the ground blue in woods across the UK, but the first record of bluebells flowering came 39 days later than it did last year.

By April 20 2017, there had been 716 records of bluebells flowering submitted to the trust’s Nature’s Calendar scheme, in which members of the public help record the changing seasons, but by the same time this year there had only been 73.

This year the first report of bluebells flowering was on March 20 in southeast England, compared with Feb 9 in south-west England last year, the trust said. It came after the early spring, brought on by mild conditions was stopped in its tracks in March by the freeze dubbed the beast from the east.