LOOKING GOOD LIST

Quote of the day: ‘She turned to the sunlight and shook her yellow head, and whispered to her neighbour. Winter is dead.’ - A.A. Milne

Pretty picture night tonight.

As a landscaper, I receive ‘Looking Good’ lists from wholesalers throughout Europe and still some in the UK.

This is my very own ‘Looking Good in the Garden, Fields or Verges’ list.

Narcissus ’Thalia’. With added dandelions.

Banks of cowslips alongside road verges.

Even an unusual sport nestled beside its taller brother, looking more like a hybridised garden primula.

The plum orchards are just breaking into flower with their carpets of dandelions or daisies beneath. A sweet smell of blossom fills the air everywhere you go.

Hellebores are at the peak of their beauty.

Primroses are finally doing well here after sulking for about five years.

Hawksbeard and dandelions are everywhere which is making the buzzing bees very happy indeed in the warm Spring sunshine.

Most exciting of all for me, the true harbingers of Spring and Summer around here are starting to open up their faces to the sun.

It’s the start of the orchid season and below is the first one to show itself to us. A really beautiful, very dark specimen.

This is an early purple orchid, the first one to come into flower here and we don’t see many of them.

In a few weeks there will be hundreds of goat or lizard orchids, which when they emerge will look like tiny pale lizards clinging to the flower spike. But they definitely smell like old goats rather than lizards.

Pyramid orchids are the most common and after a few weeks of seeing these long lived and plentiful splashes of colour, we get very blasé about them. Sad really, as seeing the first few is a very exciting spot indeed.

And thousands upon thousands of bee orchids in all shades from white through to deep pink. I’m not sure I will ever not have a thrill seeing them in such numbers.

Something I cannot identify as yet but we have loads of them under the lime trees, where they will flower sometime in May. Any ideas?

Plus a growing number of tongue orchids too later on still.

Orchids are around for the next three months. At present, it appears as if there are more each year.

It may look like a bunch of old weeds below however it’s a promise of things to come later this summer. Most of the wide, shiny leaves in this patch among the wild salvias and plantains are young goat orchids ready to burst forth.

They are obviously happy with global warming. To think it was all underwater two weeks ago.