Nature Watch, with Ron Freethy

A QUESTION which I am often asked is why do flowers bloom in the spring.

The answer is simple.

Tall trees spread their leaves in summer and cut out the sunlight to the flowers and small shrubs.

The trees time the emergence of their leaves in June to coincide with the longest day.

Oak, ash and beech are dominant from June onwards.

Next in the line for light are the shrubs such as hawthorn, blackthorn and hazel which tend to be dominant in May.

At the moment there are still some hawthorn berries left untouched by the birds.

This shows that the winter has not been too bad. Already hawthorn leaves are bursting while the bloossom is at least a couple of months away.

Third in line for the light are the flowers and the snowdrops are now beginning to be replaced by crocuses and daffodils. The latter is one of my favourite flowers. Another flower which is beginning to show already is the lords and ladies.

Only the leaves are above ground at the moment but in the autumn Mrs N Whittaker, of Carr Hall Gardens, Barrowford, sent me a super photograph.

It showed lords and ladies with the red berries on it and also the leaves beneath.

This fight for light takes place in four stages:

1. The tree layer

2. The shrub layer

3. The field layer of flowers

4. The ground layer

The ground layer is made up of simple plants such as liverworts and mosses. They grow in the winter because this is the only period when they are not shaded out by larger plants.

Spring is the time to study this layering process which is one of the most fascinating periods in nature's calendar.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.