Tulips in Britain's last remaining bulb fields has bloomed two weeks early this year due to the mix of warm and wet weather throughout spring.
As the UK's biggest tulip bulb producer, family-run Belmont Nurseries, near King's Lynn in Norfolk, has seen fields of colour before their rivals in Holland.
'We're shocked at just how early the tulips have flowered this year. They are in colour around two weeks earlier than normal,' said farmer Mark Eves, whose in-laws Janet and Peter Ward own the business.
'The weather has really helped, with a pattern of having a warm week, followed by a wet week, throughout the spring. We're flowering before Holland.'
Peter Ward, who has worked in horticulture since the age of 17, began the business 16 years ago and felt he could grow tulips as well as the Dutch. Peter and Janet hire two fields in Norfolk, which have slightly sandy soil, and rotate them on an annual basis.
They now grow 37 different tulip varieties and supply more than 20 million stems to supermarkets each year.
Tulips first arrived in Britain in 1907 when Frederick Culpin brought in 100 bulbs of six different varieties and established the British tulip fields. By 1935 more than 300 people were visiting the fields, arriving from London by train and bus to witness the coming of spring.
By 1949, this number increased to more than 100,000 people and special daily sightseeing routes were established to ensure visitors were able to see the best of the day's colourful, blooming flowers.
At the beginning of the 20th Century more than 3,000 acres of tulips were grown in Norfolk and Lincolnshire. However, in recent years, the industry has almost been wiped out as farmers turned to more profitable vegetables and cereals.
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