It’s the time of year that many of us are getting fed up of the cold and wishing the summer would hurry up, but have you considered that there are plants and creatures which need it to stay like this for long enough. Yes, there are some!

For plants, it’s called vernalisation. The seeds, or in some cases sprouting seeds, need to be exposed to the cold in order to trigger the correct development of the plant; flowering and fruiting etc. Interestingly, the process doesn’t actually induce flowering, but only causes the plants to produce a substance that allows it to flower once other stimuli (such as the length of the days) are present. This might be weeks or months later.

Many perennial plants need to have leaves for the vernalisation process to take place, so they produce leaves in their first year, and flowers and seeds only after the following winter. Fruit trees need a period of cold each year to induce dormancy – a period of rest – before flowering again. Other plants can vernalise as seeds – annuals which leaf, flower and seed all in one year. The temperature doesn’t actually need to be that low for vernalisation to occur; 5 to 10C is fine for most plants so even a relatively warm Cumbrian winter will trigger the process.

It’s also important for creatures that hibernate that it doesn’t warm up too soon. Bees get through the winter by lowering their body temperature and going into a semi-hibernating state. They will eat stores they have built up in the late summer but if the winter is too warm they become too active and need more food than they have stored. In the absence of abundant nectar to replenish it, they might starve. Hedgehogs similarly need not to wake up until there is adequate food for them to survive.

Have you ever found a butterfly fluttering about your house in the winter? It was probably woken up by the warmth of heating or lighting – especially in a little used room. But at this time of year it’s pretty unlikely to find food, or a mate, and will simply die. For this butterfly, the cold’s important.

So next time you open the front door to a cold miserable morning and wish for the warmth of summer, spare a thought for those who need it to stay cold a little longer.