We have just returned from a family holiday to Costa Rica having seen lots of amazing wildlife. I am writing about "tropical" orchids...

At this time of year I like to germinate and grow orchid seeds in Petri dishes with the help of symbiotic fungi. The “B1” fungus I mainly...

Last June, Joanne and I went to see Late spider orchids ( Ophrys fuciflora ) near Folkestone. We were privileged to be told the...

The beautiful Green-winged orchid ( Anacamptis morio ) is not common nowadays, but nevertheless widely distributed across the southern...

It has been noted widely in the media that there are far fewer insects around this summer than usual, maybe due to ongoing climate change...

These are alternative names for three July wildflowers that are out in the Front Meadow currently. Bishop’s lace is more commonly known...

While the Southern marsh and Common spotted orchids are continuing to flower amongst the Oxeye daisies, I started looking for the small,...

The Front Meadow is looking great this year, and not suffering from the overgrowth of tall vegetation that the Back Meadow is. Common...

The Back Meadow has grown incredibly high this year after all the Winter and Spring rain with mild temperatures. There is not much colour...

In March 2016 I was contacted by an expert Pleione grower who had made cross-pollinations of his plants and produced seed samples. Could...

The start of our orchid season is still at least a month away, but on the 16th of March I was fortunate to be able to go on an outing to...

It is Leap Year’s day and we are emerging from a mild but very wet winter in West Sussex. Gardening is impossible; the lawn and both...

Many U.K. hardy orchids love growing in alkaline soils above chalk or limestone. So it follows that every hardy orchid and garden meadow...

Red is a Christmassy colour (robins, Santa, etc) so I am using this as a thin excuse to talk about a red, or at least dark carmine-red,...

With the weather still mild, and following all the recent relentless rain, an interesting scatter of little fungi has appeared on the...

In deepest October not much of interest is happening on the wildflower meadows, so time for some out of season reminiscence. A hardy...

The orchid season is pretty much over now for this year. If you discount the Ghost orchid (Epipogium aphyllum), which anyhow may be...

I have just finished cutting down both Front and Back meadows for this year. There were still a few colourful Knapweeds and Wild carrots...

The exuberant height of meadow flowering may have passed now, in mid July, but there is still plenty of interest as we go into the last...

I forgot to say in the previous blog post do e-mail me if you have any orchid or meadow thoughts, questions, comments, stories, or need...