Nature notes: Flowers begin to flourish everywhere

On the wild rose bushes, leaves are breaking out of the buds among old black or blackened-red hips from last autumn. Hawthorn leaves are growing fast, and many hedges are now sprinkled all over with fresh green. On Lombardy poplars and black Italian poplars, the crimson male catkins ranged along the twigs are very noticeable, the green female catkins less so. In some books, the black Italian poplar is called, more prosaically, the hybrid black poplar. On the ground, flowers that were just appearing two or three weeks ago are now starting to flourish everywhere. Lesser celandines are beginning to fill damp ditches with beds of bright yellow, and on grassy woodland banks there are clusters of sweet violets with their delicate scent. They nod gently. Cultivated primroses in gardens have been in flower for some time, but now the pale yellow wild ones are opening beside streams and in damp oakwoods.