Warm summer weather has filled plants with the resources needed to create “potentially spectacular” colours this autumn, experts are claiming. The Royal Horticultural Society believes the UK could be covered in amazing red, orange and gold foliage over the coming months.
A combination of warm and sunny days, along with moisture in the soil after the wet winter, has allowed plants to build up the sugar levels required to produce such stunning colours.
The recent rain has also replenished soils that had become dry in the heat, meaning a large variety of plants are still actively growing. It could all make for a spectacular display this autumn, but warms days and cool nights – similar to up-state New York where the autumnal colours of trees are a major tourist attraction – will now be needed to aid the breakdown of green chlorophyll in the leaves and expose the colourful pigments that remain.
“We’ve been lucky enough to have had an amazing summer of warmth and light that has really helped plants come on after a very late spring,” said the RHS’s chief horticultural adviser Guy Barter.
“Now it looks like we can look forward to a potentially spectacular autumn with the weather treating us to one of nature’s most spectacular displays.”
Source: Interflora – Autumn to Deliver ‘Spectacular Display’
