Plantlife looked so promising this winter. On New Year’s Day, 368 species of flower were found by members of the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland.
Normally around 30 types of flowers would be expected to be in bloom at new year, in records of naturalists dating back more than 300 years.
The signs of an early spring this year seemed to be everywhere, especially spring flowering bulbs such as daffodils, crocuses and snowdrops.
And, according to volunteer observers for Nature’s Calendar, run by the Woodland Trust, elder bushes are also bursting open their leaf buds in various parts of England.
But one species that is expected to flower now is the hazel, its catkins now turning plump and yellow as they fill with pollen.
The catkins are male flowers and they cast their pollen into the air as the catkins wiggle around in the wind, which is how they got their nickname “lambs’ tails”.
But then hazel is a tree well used to cold weather because it was one of the first trees to colonise Britain after the last ice age.
The early flowering this winter does not mean that spring has arrived, though, especially now the plants have been caught in this week’s cold snap across the UK, with hard frosts wreaking havoc on many flowers.
Although this winter may eventually rank as much warmer than average, it disguises how the weather has blown hot and cold, and that has left plants at the mercy of the wild weather.
