9:24am Thursday 18th March 2010
By Stephen Lewis
WE usually have to wait no longer than late February or early March for the arrival of the flower that traditionally heralds the start of spring.
That is when, in Wordsworth’s unforgettable words, hosts of golden daffodils are normally to be seen “fluttering and dancing in the breeze”.
Not this year. It is mid March already and still there is little or no sign. We have three pairs of photographs today that show just how late their arrival is this season.
A year ago this week, our photographers were out at Sinnington and Clifford’s Tower to capture hosts of golden daffodils, just as Wordsworth described them.
Exactly a year later they went back to the same three spots. And what a difference a year makes.
Everywhere they went, there were just a few short green stems where a year ago there were clusters of nodding flowers.
Dianne Anderson, a lecturer in horticulture at Askham Bryan College, says the daffs this year are about four weeks later than normal.
“It has been the coldest winter for 30 years, and that has delayed the daffodils,” she says. “When the temperature falls below 6C, they just stop growing. They arrest their development.”
That is exactly what has happened. Brian Maud, whose family firm LW Maud has been growing daffs at Rillington since 1969, says he has never known them to be so late.
Brian has almost given up growing daffs now. But the few he has are very late, he says.
“They have never been later than March 12. But all we have at the moment are very tight buds. They still need to grow a bit more.”
The same is true up at Farndale, famous for its daffs. Visitors who came out for Mother’s Day hoping to do the daffodil walk were disappointed, admits Rachel Armstrong, owner of the Feversham Arms.
She is not worried, however. The daffs may be late, but they will definitely come, she said. “They are just starting to show through, and in a couple of weeks there will be a beautiful show.”
Dianne Anderson agrees. Now the temperatures are increasing, and the days getting longer, the daffs will probably flower fairly quickly, she says.
But while the flowers are likely to be as glorious as ever, you may well notice one difference this year. Because they stopped growing for so long, the stems may be shorter than usual.
That may have a knock-on effect on next year’s daff crop. Long after the daffodil flowers have disappeared, the long leaves remain, gathering up the sunshine to feed the bulbs beneath the ground.
Because the leaves will be shorter this year, they’ll gather less sunshine.
“So the after-effects may show next year,” Dianne says.
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