Springtime hardly gets better than this with warm sunshine, showers and the countryside sprayed deep green with all the trees in leaf. Buttercups now make dazzling gold splashes on verges, although they also make weeds of lawns and farmland fields. The worst offender is the creeping buttercup, capable of withstanding trampling, waterlogging, and some drought and with seeds so long-lived that they have been known to stay viable for 80 years.
Another common sight across the country is the broom shrub festooned with its bright yellow flowers, which look rather like gorse. Broom was made famous by Geoffrey V, the Count of Anjou and father of Henry II, who wore a sprig of broom in his cap, and which gave rise to the name Plantagenet, from the Latin planta genista.
Ox-eye daisy is also making a dramatic splash of colour across grasslands, road verges and waste grounds. Its bright yellow eye is fringed with a spray of bright white rays. It it is our largest native member of the daisy family. Although many insects pollinate the ox-eye daisy, others avoid it because it has a bitter, pungent sap. Some people swear it repels flies if planted near the house.
The first orchids, the rare early spider orchids, came out in late April. Now come the common early purple orchids in woods and meadows, their spikes of purple flowers rising above a rosette of shiny leaves. Next month sees most of our native orchids in flower.
