Spring daffs emerge in November at Eden Project

The Eden Project in Cornwall is used to having plants from warmer climates growing inside its Mediterranean and Rainforest Biomes but it said 30 of the traditional springtime flowers have bloomed outdoors since mid-November and it expects more over the next few days at its site in a sheltered former quarry.

The flowers are from a variety called Rijnveld’s Early Sensation, which typically flowers in January, and they are currently enjoying the mild air near a bee sculpture at the attraction at Bodelva, near St Austell.

Don Murray, the attraction’s chairman of horticulture, said: “Cornwall is a paradise used to early flowering. However, the extra special and quite bizarre, warm temperatures this November really are more akin to spring.

“I’m sure the first few cold snaps will remind us that winter is approaching. In the meantime we are enjoying the splash of colour,” he said.

The attraction is also enjoying the last fading sights of summer – including butterflies and some fungi, which they are attributing to the balmy autumn and “unusual” recent rainfall patterns.