My Climate Change Garden

The rising temperatures of climate change mean spring is arriving earlier in the UK. British flowers came out two to 12 days earlier in the past 25 years than in any previous quarter-century , and the seasonal timing of reproduction has shifted forward by about 11 days between 1976 and 2005, previous research has shown.

Bluebells in particular are flowering earlier than in last year’s cold spring according to a survey by the Woodland Trust.

The charity said nearly 200 observations of native bluebells had been submitted to the Nature’s Calendar website, which asks the public to submit sightings of natural events that mark the changing seasons.

Just 43 records had been submitted by this time last year, as the UK struggled to shake off cold weather.

The trust is expecting a much earlier average first-flowering date for bluebells than in 2013, when the average date across the UK was 5 May. The earliest average first-flowering date on record was 4 April 2012.These photos were taken in sunny Sussex this week and evidence that bluebells are beautiful plants that herald the arrival of warmer spring weather in the UK. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/gardening/article-1373899/Britains-bluebells-set-flower-early–expect-spectacular-yea.html

Latest figures from the British Trust for Ornithology show butterflies have already emerged in significant numbers in gardens around the country, seen in 23% of gardens, at this time of year compared with 4% last year.

A survey by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology has already received reports of many of the UK’s 46 species of ladybird.An extremely mild winter led to signs of spring as early as January, with snowdrops and hazel flowering then, plus sightings of ladybirds and butterflies.