MATTHEW OATES | NATURE NOTEBOOK
My new year flower count isn’t the best of the bunch
Primroses herald the coming of spring and offer hope
ALAMY
There were 22 major types of plant in flower in our south Cotswold garden this New Year’s Day. Despite the absence of cold weather, with only eight frosts here so far these darker months, that tally is below the normal range. Given the exceptional mildness of the Christmas period, I should have counted around 30.
I’ve been conducting New Year’s Day flowering plant counts in the garden now for 25 years. It’s fun, but the science is dubious. For a start, the count should take place on or immediately after the winter solstice day, which is the true New Year’s Day — nature doesn’t recognise our calendar, and we should perhaps be grateful that it doesn’t do Hogmanay.
Then there is the issue of what
