What a difference a year makes …
These shocking pictures, taken 12 months apart, show how the weather has affected the daffodil season.
This field was ablaze with the yellow flowers last year, but is now a bleak, barren landscape after being blasted by freezing March temperatures and a deluge of snow.
Grampian Growers say the blooms haven’t sprouted this year because, despite rumours that Spring had sprung, Scotland was still in the grip of winter weather.
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Managing director Mark Clark, of Montrose, Angus, is now expecting a huge loss in income as they battle to win contracts with shops when they don’t even have any daffodils to sell.
He said: “Basically we’re four weeks behind schedule already and the way things are looking there will be a great difficulty in getting daffodils in shops for Easter.
“We’re currently in long negotiations with one of the major supermarkets, but we’ve go nothing to sell.”
Last year, Grampian Growers lost 15 million daffodils, worth £300,000, because the temperatures were too warm.
Severe wintry conditions which hit England in February combined with near-record breaking warm weather in Scotland meant all the daffodil pickers were in England to cash in on the late blooming season.
With Scotland’s picking season coming a week earlier than usual, by the time the pickers had come back up north, the market was so saturated that Grampian Growers had to try sell the daffodils at minuscule prices.
