Daffodils that inspired Wordsworth replaced by fake plastic flowers

 Add your view

Their golden blooms inspired William Wordsworth to compose his best-known poem.

Now, two hundred years after the poet wandered lonely as a cloud, the Lakeland daffodils he made world famous are to be replaced with plastic fakes.

The exceptionally mild winter and early spring has caused daffodils to bloom early this year, in some cases by as much as a month.

Scroll down for more...

Why fake? The exceptionally mild winter and early spring means Easter blooms have already wilted

This means that visitors arriving in the Lake District in April expecting to see the traditionally spectacular Easter displays are likely to find that instead of "fluttering and dancing in the breeze", the flowers have wilted.

Now the owners of one holiday park have decided to avoid disappointment by planting hundreds of fake daffodils for their guests instead.

When William Wordsworth wandered lonely as a cloud two hundred years ago, it wasn't these fake daffodils in the Lake District which inspired him

All this week gardeners at the South Lakeland Parks site at Fallbarrow, on the shores of Lake Windermere, have been busy filling the flower beds with daffs made from plastic and silk.

Park spokesman Caroline Guffogg said: "Our guests love to see the daffodils in bloom when they come for their Easter break, but this year the flowers have been out since the middle of February.

"The chances are they won't be at their best come April, so we've taken the decision to replace them.

"The fakes are high quality silk and are extremely realistic," she said. "Unless they look really hard then I don't think many people will notice the difference."

Wordsworth, who lived in nearby Grasmere, published 'Daffodils' in 1807. It was inspired by an account written by his sister Dorothy, who described how the daffodils by the shore of Ullswater "tossed and reeled and danced, and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind, that blew upon them over the lake."

The Lake District is not the only place where early-blooming daffodils have taken observers by surprise.

At Aberglasney Gardens in Wales, daffodils were visible in the first week in December.

Director Graham Rankin blamed climate change caused by global warming and said there were serious implication for nature's cycle.

He said: "The earliest flowering would normally be January or February, but to have them out in flower in December is pretty unique.

"The mild weather with very few frosts has confused the plant into thinking it was spring."

 

What's on today   What's on tomorrow

Receive our newsletter