But even if one is accustomed to hearing of, to speaking of global warming in these vast, planetary terms, it can still come as a shock to hear of on the local level, affecting real lives in the here and now – especially when it turns on one of two of the most delicate, beautiful creatures on our planet.

But that is exactly what is happening in the Rocky Mountains of the USA, where the hummingbird and the glacier lily – two species of breathtaking grace – have been thrown out of sync by rising temperatures, threatening the hummingbirds’ existence in the region.

The problem is the heat. The tally, yellow glacier lily comes into bloom when the temperature is right. But with temperatures soaring ever higher, it’s getting hot enough much, much too early: these days, the flowers bloom 17 days earlier than they did in the 1970s. Which is bad news for migratory hummingbirds, which rely on the glacier lilies as a source of nectar when the birds migrate north to their spring breeding sites.

“In some years,” explains Amy McKinney of the University of Maryland, “the lilies have already bloomed by the time the first hummingbird lands.”

If current trends continue, it could be a mere twenty years before the hummingbirds are arriving too late to get the glacier lilies in bloom altogether; and then, we might not be seeing hummingbirds in the Western Rockies any more.

Researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and Bristol have been looking into what it is that makes a flower attractive to a bee, and have come up with a surprising answer … Velcro! Conical cells on the surface of flower petals, whose use was previously unknown, seem to act just like Velcro on the feet of bees, helping them hang on when the plant is shaking around.

“Many of our common garden flowers have beautiful conical cells if you look closely,” said lead author Dr. Beverley Glover. “Roses have rounded conical petal cells while petunias have really long cells, giving petunia flowers an almost velvety appearance, particularly visible in the dark-colored varieties.”

The method used to test what these cells actually do was beautifully simple, in concept at least. The scientists developed a strain of flowers without any conical cells on the petals, let bees settle on both types of flower, and then shook them around.

The bees already showed a preference for the flowers with conical cells when the plants were still, but as soon as the flowers began to move in the artificial ‘wind’, this preference increased. This simple test backed up the hypothesis that the cone cells are used to enable bees to cling on to the flowers, and thus make it easier for the bees to pollinate the flowers.

Dr. Glover evaluated the project’s success: “Nobody knew what these cells were for, and now we have a good answer that works for pretty much all flowers.

“'It's too easy to look at flowers from a human perspective, but when you put yourself into the bee's shoes you find hidden features of flowers can be crucial to foraging success.”

When the weather’s like this, suddenly trees are everybody’s favourite plant. After all, you can’t shelter underneath a nettle (or can you?). So in tribute to our sheltering cousins, today’s weird plant superstitions are all about trees.

1. Most superstitions seem to involve spirits chilling out where they shouldn’t, but it’s not every day that the poor spirits have to put up with paperwork. The Izhuvans of India have done their best to rectify this; as they believe that trees are inhabited by spirits, proper notice of ejection is given to them before a tree is cut down.

2. Of course, if a strange folklore belief isn’t about spirits, it’s likely to be about predicting a wedding…anyone remember our bizarre ‘fact’ about tea from our blog a couple of weeks ago? Well it’s not just tea; trees get involved in future nuptials too.

In Franconia, on St. Thomas's Day, the girls go to a tree, knock upon it three times with due solemnity, and listen for answering knocks within telling them what sort of husband they will get. Presumably ‘silent’ or ‘inarticulate’ are common results…?

3. And one more weird old belief for the day, this time from Sicily, where there is an old belief in tying stones to fruit trees in order to ensure a crop of fruit. Shouldn’t come as a surprise really…every time I eat a peach, there’s a stone in the middle. I’ll … I’ll get my coat (after all, I'll need it out there).

That’s it for another day, blog fans. Have fun plashing through the puddles!

Today’s bizarre flower is a bit of a dark horse … who said horse? Sorry, let’s make that … a dark bat.

Tacca Chantrieri is the name of this gorgeous-looking beast, but it’s better known, and certainly better described, by its nickname: the black bat flower. Black flowers are highly unusual, but t. Chantrieri sports two magnificent black petals, accompanied by a somehow sinister, somehow beautiful spray of long black ‘whiskers’. The whole flower can grow to be a foot wide across its petals, and the long, creeping whiskers can reach over 2 feet in length.

The black bat flower, a variety of orchid, grows wild in the rainforests of Yunnan Province in China, and can grow up to three feet tall. Since their classification in 1901 they have also been grown domestically, doing best in warm temperatures over 12 degrees centigrade.

In November 2011, researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center published a report in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, expressing the hope that cells from the black bat plant could help to fight cancer. The hope is that a plant-based replacement for the chemotherapy drug Taxol could be derived from this enchanting flower, which would avoid Taxol’s problems with toxicity and patients developing immunity. It’s amazing to think that this weird flower could have a role to play in fighting mankind’s most feared disease.

This is not a black bat flower. This is just a bat.

So said Rabbie Burns, Scotland's esteemed national poet. And though the great man may be known more for whisky, haggis and writing odes to wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beasties, his horticultural knowledge hit the spot here as well: June is, to many gardeners, the 'Rose Month'.

Will Shakespeare -- the bard south o' the border, if you like -- pointed out that 'rough winds do shake the darling buds of May'...and again, he had a point. It may not have felt like spring this glorious past week (even though it certainly has this morning!), but traditionally it's in June when the weather becomes clement enough for your roses to come to life. Not for nothing is the rose the 'birth flower' for the month of June. In warmer countries you might even be seeing your second flowering of the year now, but for those of us here in the winter countries this is time for the first blooming of the year.

So now that I've filled your head with more poetry and trivia than you knew you wanted, what are the best tips for getting those red, red roses springing this June?

1.

Prune! Summer pruning helps your roses to grow strongly and to produce the next round of flowers. This pruning should help ensure that the new stems and flowers will be healthy, colourful and gorgeous. 

2.

Check your roses for mildew, aphid, black-spot and other common roseate issues, including insect infestations. Aphids can be treated by spraying with soapy water. To treat black-spot, don't water from directly overhead, and try to throw away all the pruned clippings.

3.

Keep 'em fed! Make sure to fertilize your roses monthly all through the summer, and you should reap the rewards in the form of big, beautiful blooms.

Following these tips should help you to get your garden looking gorgeous this June. Summer may seem short -- how did it go Will? Ah yes. 'Summers lease hath all too short a date' -- but a rose garden in full bloom is one of those unique summer spectacles that will help you to treasure every moment.

Scientists from the University of Washington and our very own University of Edinburgh worked in tandem to study the protein ‘FKF1’, which they suspected might hold the key.

And it's pretty too!

The release of FKF1 is regulated by plants’ ‘circadian clock’. The circadian clock is a name for the complex system which plants’ and animals’ bodies use to tell which time of day it is. Because the length of the day changes throughout the year, the circadian clock is vital to regulate biological processes across 24-hour-periods, allowing people, plants and animals to adjust to the changing seasons.

The new work on FKF1 shows that it is important for controlling FLOWERING LOCUST T – nothing to do with locusts – which induces flowering. Takato Imaizumi of the University of Washington explains:

“The FKF1 photoreceptor protein we've been working on is expressed in the late afternoon every day, and is very tightly regulated by the plant's circadian clock,” Imaizumi said. “When this protein is expressed during days that are short, this protein cannot be activated, as there is no daylight in the late afternoon. When this protein is expressed during a longer day, this photoreceptor makes use of the light and activates the flowering mechanisms involving FLOWERING LOCUS T. The circadian clock regulates the timing of the specific photoreceptor for flowering. That is how plants sense differences in day length.”

The new research goes far beyond just being fascinating news for flower lovers like us at Clare; potential uses for this knowledge include breeding varieties of rice, wheat and barley with a higher crop yield, helping farmers around the world.

Takato Imaizumi and Young Hun Song. Image: University of Washington

More on the bees in a second. But first, if you think that posh shows like Chelsea are overpriced and out-of-date, you might like this article by John Vidal, where he argues that the show is increasingly irrelevant, and only for the super-rich. On the other hand, a lot of commenters seem to think that we shouldn't bring politics into a show about flowers, and just let Chelsea be Chelsea. What do you think?

Okay, back to the bees. Check out these crazy types!

These guys are at Chelsea for a very different reason: they're a publicity stunt by Friends of the Earth, trying to raise awareness of their anti-pesticide campaign. A University of Reading report says that pesticide use is up 6%, which Friends of the Earth say is killing off bee populations.

According to the Telegraph, 'A 2006 study cited found the number of solitary bees have declined by 52 per cent in the last 20 years and bumblebee species in the UK have gone extinct in the last five decades.'

Which means, obviously, that it's giant bee costume time.

We're going to pick right up where we left off last week with a look at a few more wacky plant superstitions. Crazy, the things some people will believe (Or...are they? *Spooky music*)

1: Never Say Thank You For Flowers

Here at Clare, we're not sure we like this one. It's our job to deliver flowers up and down the country, and if nobody ever said 'thank you', then it would start to seem like a bit of a ... thankless task. But despite this, some ol' folks will tell you that you oughtn't offer your thanks when someone gives you flowers

Quite where this crazy talk comes from we're not sure -- it could be that like a lot of our superstitions it all comes back to the Devil. If he hears you saying thanks for flowers then he knows you've been given something you like -- and he might just decide to take it straight back, the big meanie. A different version of this superstition holds that it's just gifts of seeds which you shouldn't say thanks to: if you do, the story goes, they'll never bloom. But you can always avoid the whole problem with some cunning wordplay: instead of 'thank you!', just say 'I appreciate it'. The Devil will be completely foxed.

2: How'd You Like These Apples?

Apples are obviously one of the most significant fruits in our folklore, going all the way back to tales of the Garden of Eden (although early version of this story just talked about a 'fruit': 'apple' is a modern translation!). But did you know some of the weirder superstitions about this tasty snack...?

Lots of folklore is pretty morbid, and tales of apples are no exception. One nasty tale says that an apple with red spots means that the roots of the tree grew into the body of a murdered person...! But there are nicer stories too. Next time you close into an apple, count the number of seed in the core -- according to one old wives' tale, this is your lucky number. What happens if you try again and get a different number, it's probably best not to ask...

Puzzles!

Let's make today's brain teaser flower related...

All of my flowers except two are roses. All of my flowers except two are tulips. All of my flowers except two are daisies. How many flowers do I have?

There are two possible answers here, see if you can get them both!

Answer  (highlight to view):

Alternate Solution #1

Three: one rose, one tulip, and one daisy.

Alternate Solution #2

Two, neither of which are roses, tulips, or daisies.

Coral bells, genus Heuchera, is a North American plant, found in the arid deserts of Arizona. It has terracotta or bright red coloured flowers. The Heuchera family includes many different varieties, of which coral bells are just one – the rest are known as alumroot.

Natives of northwest America have derived herbal remedies from the alum, to help with digestive difficulties, inflammation and bleeding. Not only that, but these tangy leaves can be used in a salad! But the most amazing thing remains those vibrant colours – as Heims said: "We get colors coleus can't even get."

 It doesn’t seem unreasonable that one might find one of the finest hard rock frontmen of the 20^th century in close proximity to a seven-metre pyramid. Such stars have, after all, long been associated with theatrical excess; just cast your mind back to Spinal Tap, and their Stonehenge. Throw in that the pyramid is called the Magical Tower Garden, and your stereotypes all seem to have come to life at once. But then you learn where this bizarre meeting took place: not on stage on a world tour, not at Donington, Knebworth or Slane Castle, but…the Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show.

The 'Magical Tower Garden'

The rock star? The Who's Roger Daltrey, he of the ear-splitting scream in ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ (now sadly often called ‘the music off CSI’ by the under-rocked). And the Magical Tower Garden? That is the ‘fantasy garden’ of this year’s show, seven metres of scaffolding, creepers and honeysuckle looming spectacularly above the crowds. It is the design of TV Gardener Diarmuid Gavin.

The show, which starts today, has plenty of other attractions on show: in the Fuzzy Gardens exhibit, artist Olivia Keith will be attempting to paint a picture every day which captures the mood of the Show. Celebrities and sort-of-celebrities (Amanda Holden, Laurence Llewelyn Bowen) are already making appearances, and then of course there are the gardens, plants and much-coveted CFS gold medals – which you can help judge! The RHS People’s Choice Award, voted by the public, is open until this Friday, 25^th May.

Foxglove Digitalis Illumination Pink, this year's

'Plant of the Year' winner

Coverage of the flower show will be on BBC2 all week, and loads more info can be found on the official page – www.rhs.org.uk/Shows-Events/RHS-Chelsea-Flower-Show/2012/.