First and last characters by a meadow finding flowering bush (6)
I believe the answer is:
azalea
'flowering bush' is the definition.
'azalea' can be an answer for 'bush' (azalea is a kind of bush). I'm not sure about the 'flowering' bit.
'first and last characters by a meadow' is the wordplay.
'first' indicates taking the first letters.
'last' becomes 'Z' (last letter of the alphabet).
'characters' indicates an anagram.
'by' says to put letters next to each other.
'meadow' becomes 'lea' (a lea is a grassy area).
The first letter of 'and' is 'a'.
'a'+'z'='az'
'az' anagrammed gives 'za'.
'za' after 'a' is 'aza'.
'aza'+'lea'='AZALEA'
'finding' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for azalea that I've seen before include "Rhododendron-like shrub" , "Rhododendron relative" , "Ericaceous plant" , "flower" , "Type of rhododendron" .)