It does seem to be a good year. Susan, at
Days on the Claise, who knows a thing or two about orchids indicated as much recently when we met up with her and told her we have far more lizard orchid rosettes this spring than in the previous two years.
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| Early Purple Orchids |
Yesterday we found a new flower on the far NE boundary just under the edge of the woods where we have our bonfires in the autumn. Niall was tipping out a wheelbarrow load of some garden 'stuff' on the pile when he noticed a group of vibrant purple flowers just to one side. A quick count came to about 15 flower spikes. He went back with the camera and took some photos.
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| Early Purple orchid: spotted leaves & stem |
After some checking on the good old internet we thought it might be an Early Purple orchid. A quick email of a photo to Susan followed and she confirmed that we do indeed have a small colony of Early Purple orchids. We found out that they are very distinctive as their leaves have spots--rather like a green Dalmation. They aren't rare but they are very pretty.
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| Our solitary Bee orchid in 2011 |
Here's hoping that this year we also get more than the one solitary Bee orchid. Another very pretty specimen, it like our Lizard orchids flowers in May/June.
10 comments:
Those purple ones are gorgoeus, aren't they? Lucky you to have them growing wild in your garden!
@Craig - gorgeous aren't they? Though garden is a bit of a misnomer! We try and keep our 2 1/2 acres looking civilised, but a garden it is not. :-)
Aren't they wonderful? I do wish we had the opportunity to discover what happens on our property -- I, too, hesitate to use the term 'garden' -- it's more like an 'orchard' with some plants that come up under the bushes!
Lovely discovery...we used to keep a weather eye out for orchids and mow round them as they always seemed to be in patches in open ground.
@Broad - we have grass [we use the term very loosely!] with trees dotted around. Closer to the house we do have some ornamental shrubs but a proper garden with beds etc it ain't.
@Fly - we have stakes marking the ones which run the risk of the chop. Most of ours tend to grow in the darker shadier places where we don't mow as much so they're pretty safe.
I can't wait to go back to Blois and see them, but not until 4th May.
@Aussie - if it is good a year as people in the know think, there should be plenty :-).
How lovely to have such beautiful and somehow exotic flowers growing on your property. I wish I knew what spring flowers we get in Normandy, but like Broad, we're never there for them and only see the primrose leaves as reminders of flowers missed.
@Perpetua - to be honest they could well have flowered there in previous years without us knowing. We aren't up there very often; but from now on will check every spring.
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