Cherry blossoms are to bloom earlier than usual this spring thanks to the arrival of warm weather, horticulturists have said.
Warmer conditions forecast for the next two weeks have been tipped to bring an “explosion” of spring colour as flowers come rapidly into bloom.
Tim Upson, the director of gardens and horticulture at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), said cherry trees at the charity’s sites were coming into flower quickly.
He said: “For the Japanese cherry trees, which start to bloom right at the beginning of the season, you can almost see the flower buds swelling in front of your eyes.
“After how grey January and February have been, people may already be seeing smatterings of colour.”
Mr Upson said he would usually expect the cherry avenue at RHS Garden Wisley to be in full bloom by the third week of March, but added that this would probably happen two weeks earlier this year.
“It certainly looks to be a good flowering year”, he said, citing a warm summer and late rainfall as providing the conditions for an abundant crop of flowers on the trees.
He added: “As long as we don’t get any frost, which would spoil things, it looks like we will get a really good display.”
The exceptionally wet start to the year has eased over the past few days, making way for sunnier breaks over the weekend and into the start of the week for many parts of England and Wales.
Mr Upson encouraged the public to savour the blossom, warning that the downside to the cherry trees flowering early was that the flowers might “go over a bit quicker” than usual.
He said that should the warm weather continue then tulips were likely to follow suit in flowering early, contributing to a “welcome explosion of colour and new life over the next two weeks”.
The charity said late-winter flowering bulbs and shrubs, including crocus, snowdrops, witch-hazels and hellebores already out in RHS gardens are being quickly joined by early daffodils, camellias, cyclamen and hyacinths in the mild conditions.
Mr Upson added: “The lack of a prolonged cold spell in the south which would normally stall growth means that we are not even out of February yet and the hoop daffodils on the alpine meadow are already starting to emerge.
“The camellias are coming through, and you can almost see the magnolia buds unfurling before your eyes.”
The UK has experienced a “lack of sunshine” over the winter months this year, having had just 70 per cent of its average sunshine so far.
The winter has also been particularly stormy and wet, with rainfall above the average for the last 30 years.
Dan Harris, the chief forecaster at the Met Office, said: “A brief period of southerly winds has drawn in some warmer and drier air.
“This has enabled cloud to clear across many parts of England and Wales, and with the sun at this time of year beginning to gather a bit of strength it has warmed the air that bit more.”
There are 42 flood warnings and 85 flood alerts still in place across the UK as of Wednesday, with most of them in Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire, and Somerset.