The crocuses have croaked
For the first time, organisers of a public event to celebrate the first flowers of spring have been left with a predicament – the flowers have bloomed weeks before the event and may be largely over by the time the public showcase for Crocus Sundays is held!
The success of previous Crocus Weekends at the Botanic Garden had led to it becoming an annual fixture in the Garden calendar at the end of February.
This year, on Sundays 28 February and 6 March, the Friends of the University’s Botanic Garden has organised a display of flowers as well as refreshments in the 16-acre picturesque garden in Oadby.
One of the first flowers to bloom in spring, the crocuses put on a spectacular display throughout the Sandstone Garden in front of Beaumont Hall - however, this has occurred weeks before the planned event, due to the unusually warm weather recently.
Richard Gornall, Director of the Garden, said: “This is a remarkably early flowering for this species of Crocus and shows that the unusually warm weather is clearly having an effect here in the Botanic Garden, just as it seems to be doing across the whole country, as evidenced by the results of the BSBI’s New Year Plant Hunt.
“Our crocuses are blooming at least two weeks early this year. This means that our two special Crocus Sundays, when we invite visitors to see the magnificent display of these flowers at the Botanic Garden, will not quite be as planned because the displays will largely have gone over! Nevertheless there will still be a good display of spring colour in the Alpine House and in other places around the Garden. Refreshments will still be on offer as will a selection of alpine plant stalls.”
For more information, please visit the Botanic Garden website.