Friday 10 July 2015

Orchids outside and in

Every year I can't wait for the wild orchids to appear in our garden. When we arrived it was a field and as you can see above parts of it (the part where the chickens live) still are, so I'm assuming they once grew wild in there. Every year there are more of them as you can see above. They are all gathered in one place within the garden where I'm assuming the conditions are just right for them.
This is the Early Purple Orchid (Orchis mascula) which is not so early here high up in the Scottish Borders. It has long, dark purple blotches on the dark green leaves so in spring it's the leaves that are easily recognizable.
 Close up you can see the speckled flowers.
By coincidence the inside orchid is also in flower. These flowers are a lot larger but you can spot the family resemblance. She flowers amazingly often, taking off a month or two in between and then returning with ever more flowers.

2 comments:

peggy gatto said...

Fascinating!!! The close up looks like a lady sitting with her dress spread out around her!

creativelenna said...

It is amazing that you have wild orchids Frieda. what a beautiful place you live in. ❤

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