Wildflower Wednesday: There's an orchid in my lawn!
My wild and woolly front lawn has just got a little woollier with the surprise addition of the above beauty. I spotted a strange looking spike emerging a couple of weeks ago and hoped it was what it's turned out to be: a lovely, lovely orchid. This one's a pyramidal orchid ( Anacamptis pyrimidalis ), which according to the link likes a milder climate and chalk or limestone grasslands. It also goes on to say that it's developed a liking for the more artificial kind of environment - such as beside roads and canals - so perhaps a front lawn on a limey clay soil is just the kind of place it likes to be nowadays. I'm delighted it's chosen my front garden! I've asked NAH to refrain from mowing the lawn for a while to enable it to set seed, though he's keen to mow the 'meadow' now No Mow May has finished. Perhaps we now have the perfect compromise, leave the front lawn so there's taller herbiage there with a lower back lawn to offer the shorter grass
Neat!
ReplyDeleteInteresting!
ReplyDeleteI can hear that tree scream from here !
ReplyDeleteOuch!
ReplyDeleteOh my! Fences don't make good neighbors...to trees!
ReplyDeleteWhy, oh why, oh why???
ReplyDeleteHi everyone, I'm more intrigued by how one of the branches has its own hole in the fence to poke through. It does look rather magnificent overall, though perhaps the owners didn't realise how big it was going to grow when they planted - a problem in waiting they've set up for the current house owners.
ReplyDeleteFrom Zoe who emails:
ReplyDeleteMinute I saw the photo it took me straight back to Highgrove and the bonkers hobbit house HRH has on the lawn in front of the house. Why do people do these things to trees?
The neighbour would be within their rights to saw the branch off!
Zoe - it hangs over a public footpath, so there's no neighbours. From a distance, which is how most people see it, it's a rather magnificent tree. It's only when you get closer, that you see there's a bit of a problem. I suspect the people who planted it decades ago didn't know there'd be a problem and the current owners are probably in a bit of a dilemma re what to do for the best.