It's Spring Jim, But Not As We Know It

Okay, RHS Chelsea begins on Monday, I'm giving it a miss this year, going to Hampton Court in July instead. Anyway, one of the more interesting articles I've read in the past seven days was an interview with one of the Hillier brothers who have been exhibiting at Chelsea since Alan Titchmarsh was still a glint in his mother's eye. He claimed, or rather he stated, that the flowers and plants at one of the company's growing centres were between three and six weeks ahead of schedule as a result of the mild March and warm April.

Tonight as I walked around the garden I have to say I'm of the opinion that the six weeks is closer to the mark. Usually when I go to Chelsea I'm jealous of the tulip displays because mine have yet to appear, well mine have been and gone! So have my marigolds that usually flower from Easter until June, I've had apple blossom on the russet tree and tonight I noticed that not only do we have quite good size strawberries on the plants but I also have blackcurrants, they are still green but way ahead of schedule. Oh and the lavender is in flower, again this is early.

Now I'm not going to go down the GW route here but it struck me that a combination of various meteorological effects is having a very weird impact on the garden.