British gardeners have shared their surprise at spotting daffodils and other spring flowers blooming in December, raising concerns about climate change and its impact
Gardeners in the UK have expressed concerns over premature blooming (stock)(Image: Clive Nichols via Getty Images)
A number of British gardeners have voiced astonishment and concern after witnessing a remarkably unusual sight for this period of the year. Among them is George Cook, who posted on TikTok documenting the spectacle in his own garden, where daffodils and pink perennials were flourishing in the winter sunshine by December 20.
“This isn’t normal,” he stated in his footage. Indeed, the Royal Horticultural Society explains daffodils require several months to establish their root systems before the blooms emerge, typically between February and May. Yet with December’s mild conditions, it seems the spring flower has been lured from the earth prematurely to flourish in average temperatures ranging from seven to 10 degrees.
Another gardening devotee shared her TikTok discovery on the same date while preparing Christmas decorations, confessing her amazement at finding daffodils sprouting as well. “I’m putting some Christmas lights out in my garden and let me show you what I have just found,” explained Rach in her recording. “This is crazy.”
She proceeded to focus on a container outside her property. “The daffodils are up – I’m sure it’s normally late January you start to see these,” she went on. “I’m not complaining, but I just hope they last until spring.”
Rach additionally pointed out that her trees had begun to form buds. “We have had such a mild winter and the weather is thinking that spring has sprung early,” she concluded. “I have never seen daffodils up this early before.”
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George’s video sparked dozens of TikTok users to voice their worries about climate change. One replied: “How anyone can see daffodils bloom in the middle of winter and deny climate change, is beyond me. It’s like looking out the window, seeing a hurricane, and saying to yourself ‘I’m fine, this is fine, I’m sure it won’t kill me’.”
Another person commented: “I saw a bumblebee happily flying around on Thursday. Like you say, this isn’t normal.”
A third revealed: “My petunias are still blooming and I had strawberries till the end of last month, it’s 100 per cent definitely the warmest winter we’ve ever had.”
Meanwhile, a fourth TikTok user remarked: “I’m a full-time gardener and it has been a struggle this autumn/winter to see what is happening every single day before my eyes, the bulbs, the buds, the bees, the butterflies. It’s lovely but it’s not normal. It is so, so sad.”
Research from Cambridge University has revealed that climate change is causing UK plants to flower a month earlier on average compared to previous decades and centuries.
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Utilising a citizen science database containing records dating back to the mid-18th century, researchers discovered that the impacts of climate change are prompting plants across the UK to bloom one month sooner due to recent global warming.
The study reported: “The researchers based their analysis on more than 400,000 observations of 406 plant species from Nature’s Calendar, maintained by the Woodland Trust, and collated the first flowering dates with instrumental temperature measurements.
“They discovered that the average first flowering date from 1987 to 2019 is a full month earlier than the average first flowering date from 1753 to 1986. This same period aligns with the rapid global warming caused by human activities.”
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It further explained: “While the first spring flowers are always a welcome sight, this earlier flowering can have consequences for the UK’s ecosystems and agriculture. Other species that synchronise their migration or hibernation can be left without the flowers and plants they rely on – a phenomenon known as ecological mismatch – which can lead to biodiversity loss if populations cannot adapt quickly enough.”.
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