Flowers are great... until they bloom at the wrong time

Results of the 16th annual New Year Plant Hunt show how our weather is changing, impacting flowering times and other wildlife — birds, bees, butterflies, and a wide range of pollinators — that depend on our wild plants

Now in its 14th year, the Plant Hunt contributes to our understanding of how wild and naturalised plants across Britain and Ireland are responding to a changing climate. Max Connolly finds a primrose. Picture: James Harding-Morris 

Flowers are generally a phenomenon of spring and summer.

From March, dandelions erupt along gardens and waysides, offering a feed of much-needed nectar for early emerging bumblebees. In April, primroses brighten ancient hedgebanks, and bluebells blanket the base of old, deciduous woodlands.