Regular readers will know I have a soft spot for bluebells. All the same, I was amazed when I spotted the first flowers of the season today while out on a family walk.
There were a few blooms by the side of the path at NZ292401. Now, don’t rush down here expecting a great display:
- there are only a handful of flowers and
- as you can see, they aren’t the best of specimens
The plants are on a sheltered south-facing slope with little undergrowth or overhanging foliage to block the sun, so these really have the best prospect of flowering early. For the majority of the plants in deeper woodland or different aspects the conditions will have been far less ideal and I wouldn’t expect them to be flowering in significant numbers for a few weeks yet. That said, there has been talk in the press about the mild, even warm, weather we have been having over the last few weeks in the UK. If proof were needed, I’d say these blooms are at least a month early for our area.
