Bouch said: “We’ve seen mild overnight temperatures of almost double digits, helped by heavy cloud.
“A late frost could do damage but there’s no sign of that on the horizon.”
He said: “Traditionally spring is typically short in terms of the blooming season. But if the temperatures [are] cool, we’ll see prolonged displays of up to three months, with camellias and daffodils likely to flower longer.”
At Knightshayes, near Tiverton, in Devon, most of the camellias are flowering, the magnolias are in bud and bluebell flower spikes are already “sneaking out”, the National Trust said.
John Ridgley, senior gardener, said: “This trend has been happening for quite some time now, but the effects of the previous summer combined with the following winter period seem to accentuate it.”
He added: “As we have just experienced, last year’s warm, dry summer followed by a prolonged wet, mild winter seems to confuse some plants into either early flowering or very little flowers at all.”
Comments are closed.