Daffodils and spring are both blooming late! (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Daffodils and spring are both blooming late!

9:20pm Wednesday 17th March 2010 in

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LATE-blooming daffodils have put spring on hold in the Lake District.

Cumbria Tourism has launched a Daffs Watch Appeal to encourage people to look out for the yellow perennials, which usually flower in February.

“It’s virtually unheard of not to have seen a single daffodil in the Lake District by the middle of March,” said chairman Eric Robson. “It’s an industry of its own, with visitors coming here just to see them growing by the lakesides.

“The up side is that because they are late, they should be out and looking their best for the Easter holidays.”

One of the most famous places to see daffodils in the Lake District is Dora’s Field, next to St Mary’s Church, in Rydal, near Ambleside, which was home to William Wordsworth who wrote the world- famous poem Daffodils. The field was named after Wordsworth’s daughter, Dora, who died in 1847, and is usually adorned with thousands of daffodils by this time in March.

Horticulture Week, a gardening magazine, has reported that it is the latest that daffodils have bloomed in the Lake District for 30 years. Dove Cottage curator Peter Elkington lives at the neigh-bouring Rydal Mount and Gardens, which is Wordsworth’s former home and a visitor attraction open to the public. He said there were daffodils around, but no signs of a bloom in Dora’s Field.

There were also unopened daffodils at Ullswater, but none of the blooming heads which insp-ired Wordsworth’s acclaimed poem.

It was written after the poet enjoyed a spring walk by the lake with his sister Dorothy. She was the first to write about the flowers, describing them in her journal – while the poet wrote his own version published in 1804.

Residents can Tweet any sighting of the flower, or email pictures of the first daffodils of 2010, to daffs@golakes.co.uk