Horticulturists Joe and Roger Pacheco have been left stunned by Mother Nature -- after bulbs they did not expect to bloom for another two months burst into flower.

The father-and-son team, who run one of the Island's biggest flower farms, shipped in 200 of the bulbs from a wholesaler in the US. Although they have cultivated thousands of Easter Lillies in time for this year's religious event, they decided to also plant a second variety which they could harvest from their Devonshire field in May.

But the new breed has proved to be an early developer and has already burst into bloom months before it was supposed to.

"You could say we were pretty surprised,'' Roger Pacheco said.

"We brought the new bulbs in so that there would be later blooms for Mother's Day.

"We could see these coming up but we still thought they would bloom later.

Then, suddenly they're here. Everything has its time.'' The flowers are similar to a traditional Easter Lilly but are thinner and have no scent.

"They look a bit anorexic in comparison,'' Mr. Pacheco said.

"But we've got some beautiful orange flowers and some cream ones.'' The US company has now promised to send a further 200 bulbs to the farm in the hope that more flowers will be ready later in the year.

Meanwhile, Mr. Pacheco has promised a bumper crop of the traditional Easter Lilly for this year.

"We've got tens of thousands of them and they're beginning to come up now,'' he said.

"This year's going to be a very good year -- they're coming up perfectly.''