17.04.2023
Now that we are finally emerging into better weather in mid April, there have been exciting developments on the meadows. The Cowslips and Fritillaries I mentioned last time have put on a good show, now fading a little. There are also small violets dotted in the short grass and adding more to the colour than I would have imagined.
I am not great at identifying violet species, but there appear to be at least two: some are Dog violets (Viola riviniana) seen here, and some I think are the Early dog violet (Viola reichenbachiana) which has dark coloured spurs behind the petals. There is a lot of the latter in the garden generally, around path edges and under shrubs, so I wonder whether it might actually be a garden cultivar, introduced by previous home owners. Also there are a few flowers of Lady’s Smock or Cuckooflower (Cardamine pratensis), probably because it has been so wet in the last 6 months.
Last year there was a single flowering Southern Marsh orchid (Dactylorhiza praetermissa) that had self-seeded in the front meadow. The big news this year is that by conducting a “finger-tip” search I found numerous small self-seeded orchids coming up. These are in addition to ones I have grown separately from seed and then planted out.
On the back meadow there is a patch with 4 Common Spotted (Dactylorhiza fuchsii), 3 probable Southern Marsh, and even 2 small Twayblades (Neottia ovata). Probably not many are big enough to flower this year, but we will see. Typically, one fuchsii has chosen to grow in the central path and I have disrespected it slightly with the lawn mower – an Old Spanish Custom.
In the front meadow I gave up counting Common Spotteds at about 17, and am hopeful that perhaps half a dozen might be flowering size this year. Though I didn’t see any Twayblades, there were 3 more Southern Marsh orchids.
I also have a few “planted-out” individuals of the following on the back meadow: Loose-flowered (Anacamptis laxiflora), Common Spotted, Green-Winged (Anacamptis morio), and Bee (Ophrys apifera) orchids. Not everything is going to succeed, of course, due to disasters that can happen along the way, e.g. slug / snail related incidents. All-in-all though, it looks like being an exciting orchid year!
Photos from top: 1. Cowslip and Fritillaries, 2. Dog violets, 3. Common Spotted orchid, 4. Southern Marsh orchid, 5. Twayblade.
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