The gardens have been tidied up, the morris dancers booked and the cake and jam stalls made ready. As preparations get under way to welcome 10,000 visitors to Britain’s biggest daffodil festival this weekend, just one tiny detail is missing. After the coldest winter in more than 30 years, there’s not a single golden bloom in sight. Wordsworth would not be impressed.
For the first time since the Thriplow daffodil festival began 41 years ago, the coachloads of people strolling around the pretty Hertfordshire village will have to make do with a display of tens of thousands of green stems.
The villagers are still expecting plenty of visitors this weekend, however, and are putting on all the usual trappings of a country fair – including morris dancing and maypole dancing. Thriplow, eight miles from Cambridge-started its Daffodil Weekend-in April 1969 to raise money to repair St George’s church. Villagers opened their gardens to the public and the event attracted more than 1,500 flower lovers.
In 1976 they planted three tons of daffodil bulbs along the lanes and the incredible sea of yellow began attracting thousands of people.
The golden flowers, which come in 2,500 varieties, stop growing when temperatures are below 6c. The UK produces half the world’s bulbs, exporting 10,000 tons a year.
– from dailymail.co.uk
Please reduce your consumption. We cannot play with nature.