Early purple orchid ( Orchis mascula ) It’s still too early for one of our earliest UK orchids, the Early purple ( Orchis mascula ), to flower but it won’t be terribly long now. I look forward to it as being effectively the start of our orchid season. They begin blooming in early April in the warmest most sheltered locations, or even from late March in these days of climate change.   I have been interested to find out when the leaves appear above ground. Members of the Orchis

Part 4: Growing-on protocorms     Protocorms developing on sowing Petri Let’s say your Petri dish from Part 3 has been incubating in the dark for 8 weeks or more now. With luck, many orchid seeds have germinated and are developing into protocorms. Germination involves imbibement of water and swelling of the spherical seed embryo as its cells divide and grow. It bursts out of the surrounding testa and becomes a small white structure with conspicuous root hairs (rhizoids). One

Part 3: Sow seeds and add fungus   If you have any questions about Parts 1 to 3 please feel free to e-mail me (see below).   Orchid seeds in Eppendorf tube Firstly, a word about safety. Follow the described methods entirely at your own risk. However there should not be anything very dangerous. Bleach is harmful so follow the safety instructions on the bottle. I am not aware of the B1 fungus being harmful and I have been using it for nearly 20 years with no problems. It is, ho

Part 2: Pour the medium   Measures of oats, agar, and marmite This blog series is a detailed description of how to grow orchid seeds with B1 fungus. If you have any questions please feel free to e-mail me. See below.   Now you have all the equipment described in Part 1 it is time to go ahead and make Petri dishes of Basic Oats Medium.   Wear gloves to protect the hands and avoid contamination of the plates: rubber gloves for coarse work, disposable latex gloves for fine handl

Part 1: The things you need   This series of blog posts is a detailed description of how to grow orchid seeds with B1 fungus, expanding...

Orchid spike has shed most of the seed now I cut down the Front and Back meadows last week. This is the same time, late August, I usually...

Male Common blue on lavender (but very near the widflower meadow!) It ’s good to see lots of butterflies this year on the wildflower...

Hybrid Frog & Common Spotted orchid A week ago we visited a nearby chalky downland site in West Sussex that I previously regarded as...

Common spotted orchids It is high season for the meadow orchids right now and they are putting on a fine show in the Front Meadow. I have...

Early flowering meadow orchid The Front Meadow is doing nicely now despite extremely dry weather in the last two months. The sward is not...

Cowslips on Front Meadow Encouraged by the recent sunshine the garden meadows are resplendent with cowslips ( Primula veris ) and...

The Madeiran, or "leafy" orchid is endemic to Madeira and does not occur naturally in the U.K. or mainland Europe. However, being very...

Now is the winter of our thin content made much better by reminiscing over the glorious orchids of last summer. In July we saw the...

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,...