In Reg’s Meadow the sequence of plant growth follows a fairly regular pattern, with plants coming into leaf and flower at around the same time each year. While we’ve studied the meadow and taken photographs we have also been watching the weather and trying to spot variations in the vegetation patterns brought about by different weather conditions. These are often very slight from year to year, but sometimes there are significant differences early in the year, mainly as a result of the weather over the winter months. In this page we will give a brief summary of weather patterns during the time we’ve been monitoring and some photographs showing differences in growth of a few key meadow plants in different years.

2005

We began our regular surveys in 2005 and the previous winter 2004/5 had been quite cold in the south and east of England, with icy winds and a fair amount of wintry weather in February and March. April and May were also quite cold, but most of the summer and autumn were warm in southern England, with mostly low levels of rainfall. November and December were rather cold but dry.

2006

January began with wet weather, followed by a cold spell that continued through February and March, with that February the coldest since 1996. After a fairly wet April and May the summer was very dry, succeeded by a wet autumn through to the end of October. November and December were wet and mild, with a brief cold spell in mid-December.

2007

The year began with mixed weather, generally fairly warm, but there was quite a lot of rain in February in the south and east. April was exceptionally warm (a nice change for Easter!) but June was the wettest on record, and the wet weather continued to the end of July. August and September were mainly dry, followed by clear skies in October, producing night frosts. Heavy rain and sleet in November and prolonged Atlantic gales in December brought the year to a wet and windy end.

2008

This year began quite warm and wet, through January and into February, with a very cold and frosty spell in mid-February that continued into March – the rest is still to come!

Noticeable Differences

21st Mar 2005	2nd Feb 2007	5th Feb 2008

One of the most visible differences has been the general colour of the centre of the meadow, especially while the vegetation is low and the central part of the meadow is bare. Following the very dry and fairly cold winter and early spring of 2004/2005 everything was very brown at the beginning of 2005 – the first photograph was taken on 21st March. By contrast, after the much wetter early winter weather of 2006/2007 it was noticeably very green in the spring of 2007 – the second photo was taken on 2nd February. Chalky soil does not hold water well, but after prolonged spells of rain it has a higher water content and this can be seen in the lushness of the vegetation. The third photo, taken on 5th February this year, shows something in between the two, with the paths and more bare areas showing a lot of green as a result of the wet periods at the start of 2008.

The most marked differences can be seen when comparing the vegetation of early 2006 with that of this year, 2008. The two preceding winters were considerably different - the dry, cold winter of 2005/2006 meant that much of the meadow vegetation was rather slow to appear in the spring of 2006. If we look at four different species we can see these differences clearly.

Cowslip

8th Feb 2006	23rd Jan 2007	5th Feb 2008

The cowslips are often showing good green growth by February each year, but in 2006 they were still tiny and only just beginning to unfurl at the beginning of the month. By contrast in 2007 the leaves were fully open and the plants already quite large by the end of January and at the very beginning of February this year we found one cowslip plant which already had an open flower.

Hawthorn

8th March 2006	4th March 2008

There was a marked difference between the times at which the hawthorn leaves appeared in 2006 and 2008. After the cold dry winter of 2005/6 the hawthorn bushes still had only tiny, tight buds showing on bare twigs, while in March of this year there were many leaves opening, and some already fully out.

On hawthorn the leaves appear before the flowers, with the flowers not coming out until late April or early May.

Blackthorn

8th March 2006	4th March 2008

The blossom coming out on the blackthorn bushes for those two years showed the same variation. At the beginning of March 2006 there were only tight buds to be seen, while at the same time in 2008 many flowers were beginning to open and one blackthorn in the south hedgerow was already a mass of open white blossom.

Hazel

8th Feb 2006	8th Feb 2006
12th Feb 2008	12th Feb 2008

In 2006 both the familiar hazel catkins and the tiny red female flowers came out a little later than usual. The red flowers are only just emerging from the buds in the first photo in early February 2006. Many of the catkins were still quite tight and brown, while others were just beginning to open out and release their yellow pollen. Around the same date this year both the catkins and flowers were fully open on most of the hazels. Sometimes the female flowers and the male catkins are found together on the same twig and sometimes they appear separately.

Early 2006 was an unusually slow year for spring growth in Reg’s Meadow, but it serves very well to show how the different weather patterns over a few months can affect plant development. Weather conditions will always have an impact on the growth of plants in the meadow and if the climate in our part of Britain changes as predicted in future years we will almost certainly notice further differences. It will be interesting to see how things develop.....watch this space!

As I write this, at the beginning of March, it has been impossible for me to travel anywhere in North Hampshire for three weeks without seeing one of our great natural spectacles. This is the clouds of white blossom that grace our hedgerows at the very beginning of spring – even before winter is really over. This year, this blossom appeared very early, in the second week of February: more usually it is a week or two later. Many people assume that this is blackthorn (Prunus spinosa), but in fact it is a closely-related species called cherry-plum, which is a very old introduction to Britain and grows as a wild shrub in the South of England. It is commonly planted along roadsides, in town and country, which is where we notice it, at a time of year when there is little else to catch our eye.

Cherry-plum can be told from blackthorn in a number of ways. The first, and single most reliable indication, is that on average it flowers around a month earlier than blackthorn, with little overlap between the flowering periods. It stands taller than blackthorn, which tends to make a lowish, dense shrub, while cherry-plum can be quite a tall tree and has long, sweeping branches. Blackthorn flowers are smaller (no more than 1 cm) and very dense, looking fluffy with their massed stamens, and the whole bush looks almost as if it has been sprayed with artificial snow. Cherry-plum flowers are individually larger – about 1.5 cm – and more loosely bunched: at close range they are very faintly fragrant. Both plants flower onto bare twigs, but cherry-plum starts to get its leaves well before the flowers fall.

The thorns that give blackthorn its name are not always easy to see. They are on the tips of the twigs and some bushes have very few. Finally, the fruit are distinctive. Blackthorn produces sloes: tiny, bitter plums with a beautiful blue bloom. Cherry-plum has slightly long-stemmed orange-red fruit, very much bigger, and edible raw (though said to be better cooked.) It is uncommon to see fruit on the trees – perhaps because they are eaten by birds as soon as they are ripe!

Information Kiosk Prunus

The early-flowering Prunus that hangs over the information kiosk in the park may well be a cherry-plum: it regularly produces small orange fruit, and flowers much earlier than any of the domestic plum varieties, at the same time as the naturalised trees.

Cherry-plum and blackthorn together are the original parents of two hybrid trees, the bullace and the damson, from which all cultivated plums have been derived. Both have fruit which derives its blue colour from the blackthorn and its size and edibility from the cherry plum. This is perhaps surprising in view of the difference in the flowering periods but some individual blackthorns may flower unusually early, producing the possibility of cross-fertilisation.

There is a common purple-leaved variety of the cherry-plum which is known as Prunus pissardii. The flowers of this variety are pale pink rather than white, and I have seen a mixed hedge of the two varieties which is very pretty when they are still in flower and just starting to get their leaves.

But why include cherry-plum in Meadow Muses? Well, we have always wondered why a tree so common around the area didn’t turn up in the meadow and have spent a lot of happy time trying to persuade some of the rather atypical blackthorns that grow near the hides that this is what they are – without success. However, on our March visit to the meadow this year we found, tucked away in the furthest north-west corner, behind the compost heap, a tall but straggly specimen in full flower, coming into leaf – the first new species for 2008! And granted that the blossom has been exceptionally striking this year, we thought that we should use this tree for our featured species. Blackthorn has been stealing its press, and taking all the credit, for far too long.