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 it at present apart from buttercups. Yellow rattle is hardly to be seen and there are more actual grasses this year. Sadly it is not good for some of the orchids such as Green-winged and the young Twayblades. They are having a blank year this time.
I am hoping the Southern marsh and Common spotted orchids will be able to compete and struggle their flower spikes up into the sunshine.
The Front meadow is, as usual, not so bad for vegetational overgrowth and it looks like being a good year for Southern Marsh and Common Spotted. There are already three of the latter opening their lowest flowers, which is very early. Peak flowering is usually around the second week of June, even in these days of excess carbon dioxide.
A few weeks ago there were two Lax-flowered orchids doing well on the Back Meadow, but one I noticed had arrested its development at a very early stage. On closer inspection the stem had been chewed almost right through by a pesky gastropod. I nearly threw the spike away but then thought to put it in a glass of water in the house. It flowered beautifully for a fortnight, so it was well worth doing.
I tried using the pollinia from it to pollinate the other plant on the meadow, but this appears to have not worked. I think the pollinia did not have time to fully develop and produce viable pollen.
Photos: 1. The Back Meadow, 2. The Front Meadow, 3. The bitten-off Lax-flowered orchid, 4. Close-up of the latter.
All of this is really interesting. You are obviously a very skilled grower. Like you, one of my meadow areas has towering, thick grass this year and only 2 common spotted orchids have appeared and the twayblade. The orchids don't look as robust as they used to and I wondered if last year's peroids of very dry weather have affected them. Sadly no bee orchids this year.