Senses of spring: smells of spring

Although somewhat subtler than our most dramatic sights and sounds of the season, spring smells are still exciting and fresh. They could be easily missed in the hustle and bustle of London life, but if you only stop a moment to take in the scents of spring, you'll be in for a treat. 

In early spring, snowy clouds of blossom adorn the trees in London’s gardens, parks, woodlands, and along the edge of streets. The sweet smell of blossom is a true delight of spring, and this scent attracts the attention of early pollinators who flock to the flowers to feed on nectar and pollen.  

The white flowers of blackthorn are the first appear, usually in March. Blackthorn is distinguishable from the similar looking hawthorn by its time of flowering; the flowers of blackthorn bloom before its leaves, whereas hawthorn blossoms later in April, after the tree comes into leaf. Blackthorn blossom is later joined by cherry plums, wild cherries and further into spring, rowan.

An unmissable experience for the senses in spring, must surely be a walk through a woodland filled with wild garlic (ramsons) - its distinctive and pungent garlicky smell alone, make this plant unmistakable. Wild garlic spends most of the year underground as a bulb in ancient woodland, coming into leaf in March before putting on its starry show of flowers from April onwards.  

By flowering early in spring, wild garlic makes the most of the sunlight reaching the woodland floor, before it’s shaded out by the leafy canopy above. This early spring bloom attracts the attention of plenty of pollinating insects, including hoverflies, butterflies and longhorn beetles.

Later in spring, take a walk through some of our woodland nature reserves and you may be treated to one of the season’s great spectacles – a sweet smelling carpet of bluebells. Flowering from April to May, bluebells are one of the last spring flowers to bloom before the tree canopy closes above them. 

English bluebells are losing ground to the Spanish bluebell (a variant which was likely introduced by the Victorians), and hybrids of the two. It can be easy to confuse the varieties, but our native bluebells have a strong, sweet scent, whereas the smell of Spanish and hybrid bluebells is far weaker.