Spring is very much here. The sun is shining and all seems well as we enter what is the loveliest season. With that in mind we are proud to present a selection of the most awesome videos of flowers opening. The plant kingdom is not usually an exciting subject for video photography. The use of time-lapse techniques overcomes this spectacularly. When you can speed them up you can see how plants live and move and love.

Orchids are the second most diverse group of flowering plants. There are over 21,000 species of orchids. Some are threatened due to their rareness and beauty. Not many people know that vanilla, prized for the flavour of its seed pods is a type of orchid.

Tulips are the quintessential flowers of springtime. Popular among gardeners, tulips are grown from bulbs planted in the dead of winter. Due to the variety of colours that tulips can come in it is possible to plant spectacular displays. Holland is the home of the tulip, holding tulip festivals each year. Such festivals are also held in Britain and the United States. Despite their popularity in Europe, tulips are not a native species. They were introduced some time in the 16th Century.

It was Shakespeare who wrote ” a rose would smell as sweet by any other name”. He may not have considered the possibility of them being called ‘dung nuggets’ for example. As gifts the different colours of roses convey different meanings. Red roses are said to symbolize romantic love and passion, and yellow roses friendship, for instance.

The true beauty of flowers is their variety. A well selected array of flowers is a display like no other. From an evolutionary point of view flowers may be designed to appeal to bees. It is us however who will always think that flowers are the bees knees.