By Community Correspondent Bethan Baxter The 20th of March marked the first day of spring, and it usually brings with it leaping lambs, fresh frog spawn, and above all the sweet scented, bright and brilliant Daffodils. However, this year they have decided not to be gaily swaying in the spring breeze ready for the first day of spring, but they are almost four weeks late.

Last year, the daffodils were earlier than usual due to the mild winter, but 2010 has brought a much colder and longer winter, consequently resulting in our little yellow friends not coming out to blow there trumpets bursting with nectar.

It’s not only the daffodil but there is not much blossom around either. In fact if you take a long look at the trees lined up along the roads such as Ember Lane, none of them have started to grow new leaves and have barely started to bud. A few of the trees haven’t even lost all their dead, brown, crunchy leaves yet, a tradition associated with autumn which was a reasonably long time ago. So why are they so late? It could be due to global warming messing around with the climate. We are seeing animals not hibernate long enough when the winter has been warmer than usual, such as hedgehogs, and some birds are migrating back to Britain earlier than usual. Maybe the daffodils are late because they were planted later than they should have been. Roundabouts are usually abundant with growth at this time of year, but at the moment they all seem a little bare.

With the long and cold winter we’ve just experienced, when are we going to see the summer flowers emerge? And what does it mean for the insects that feed off the daffodils leaves? Daffodil bulbs and leaves contain poisonous crystals so not many animals eat them, but lots of animals, such as squirrels will quite happily dig them up. If animals that hibernate, such as the squirrel, are not hibernating for as long a period of time, and the daffodils are taking longer to grow, more creatures will dig up the shooting bulbs causing more daffodil disaster.