Currently several of the fields around Blanchland in Northumberland have some of the densest displays of buttercups that I've ever seen. Double-click the image for a better view.....
I've also seen that the fields have best buttercup displays for years & have touched on it in my Country Diary for next Friday. I've been wondering why - is it last wet summer, or the late spring compressing all the flowering at once? Susie
Hi Susie, I don't really know - maybe a combination of both. It seems to be a pretty spectacular year for blossom of all kinds too and - in our garden - for apples, pears and soft fruit. I wonder, in the case of the buttercups, whether a long delay in flowering allowed them to build up starch reserves in the roots and then use it all to produce a bumper crop of flowers?
Cracking sight to see Phil.
ReplyDeleteThey've done well here too.
I've also seen that the fields have best buttercup displays for years & have touched on it in my Country Diary for next Friday. I've been wondering why - is it last wet summer, or the late spring compressing all the flowering at once? Susie
ReplyDeleteCan't recall ever seeing a better display Keith...
ReplyDeleteHi Susie, I don't really know - maybe a combination of both. It seems to be a pretty spectacular year for blossom of all kinds too and - in our garden - for apples, pears and soft fruit. I wonder, in the case of the buttercups, whether a long delay in flowering allowed them to build up starch reserves in the roots and then use it all to produce a bumper crop of flowers?
ReplyDeleteThat's a third and also very plausible reason!
ReplyDelete