Do they know it’s winter?
Readers’ photos show how flowers are blooming... months early
THE bleak midwinter has never looked so cheery.
Across Britain, many flowers seem to think it’s already spring – as shown by these colourful photographs sent in by our loyal readers.
Other plants are stuck in autumn mode, still bearing blooms that should have withered months ago.
Even bumble bees have been tricked out of hibernation three months early.
Our story last week on a mimosa that flowered before Christmas, instead of in mid-February, prompted many of you to send us your pictures. Blooms out several weeks early include primrose, daffodils and snowdrops. Others, such as scabious and poppies, have been in flower since the summer.
Reader Helen Taylor’s tiarella Spring Symphony began flowering in her garden in Preston in November. ‘It must not understand its name,’ she said.
Retired policeman John Ratcliffe, 67, from Farnham, Surrey, says his snowdrops were ‘the earliest ever’. They started emerging in November instead of at the end of January.
Arnold Barnes, 88, from Plymouth, says his camellia Saint Ewe normally flowers in spring but this year he was able to use the blooms for Christmas decorations. In Sprotborough, near Doncaster, retired local government officer Stephanie Melling, 63, was delighted to find a wild primrose in flower. ‘I was flabbergasted,’ she said of the plant, which normally blooms between March to May
Frost-resistant Virginia stock has been in bloom in the garden of Gillian Bould, 80, since last spring.
Experts say a mild autumn and unusually chill-free December have allowed summer plants to survive and others to bloom early. It follows a summer that has been confirmed as England’s warmest on record, and the second-warmest for the UK as a whole.
RHS chief horticultural adviser Guy Barter, based at Wisley, Surrey said our readers’ pictures were remarkable. ‘ It’s really quite impressive and I was quite surprised to see so many flowers blooming in the winter,’ he said.
‘We had a mild autumn which allowed a lot of things to carry on growing. It’s not got really cold to finish off late flowering things.
‘On the other hand there’s been enough cold to prime flowers such as daffodils and snowdrops to bloom earlier.’ But with the Met Office warning of a possible cold snap at the end of the month, there is a potential down side to the mild start to winter, Mr Barter warns.
‘The risk of a lovely flowering in January is that when it gets cold we could be left with nothing much until March,’ he said.