It’s not just the flowerers that provided a seasonal surprise in the garden in 2016.
Due to the lack of frosts at Coleton Fishacre, there were still leaves on many of the plants that would usually have lost them in winter, such as the Canna iridiflora and the Impatiens tinctoria.
The impressively huge Rhododendron russellianum by the Rill garden flowered in 2015 at Easter, but in 2016 was flowering for Valentine's Day.
Unknown consequences
Although having more flowers may initially sound exciting, there could be detrimental knock on effects and only time will tell with an uncertain climatic future.
Plants that thrive in dry arid conditions, such as some of the ones from South African and Chilli in our collection may start to suffer with the excess moisture .
Bulbs could also start to rot in the ground. Wildlife such as bees and butterflies that are usually dependent on specific plants being in flower at certain times will have to adapt to these seasonal changes if they are to survive.
Having lots of plants flowering early could leave a large foraging gap for them later on in the year.
How this could affect gardeners
Gardeners too are having to adapt to these mild conditions. You could almost re-write the traditional monthly jobs list with weeding taking place 12 months of the year as they continue to thrive. And I never imagined that we would be deadheading daffodils in December.