Hopton House Blog Comments
Orchids
Posted by Karen Thorne on 23/07/2010 17:32:17
We've been at Hopton House for 6 years and each summer one of our neighbours has promised us that an orchid grows on the road verge just a few steps from our gate. Unfortunately, despite asking them not to, the people who cut the verges in early summer have been rather over zealous and mowed the plants down before they flowered.
This year our neighbour armed herself with a piece of string, some wooden sticks and a "do not mow" sign and cordoned off the verge.
On arriving back from our holidays one of the first things I did was walk up to see how far the orchid had progressed. I'm very pleased to say that it waited for us to come back from holidays and is currently in full bloom.
The plant itself is rather unimpressive to look at from the side or above. You have to get down to its level - cue several cars stopping to ensure that the woman in her slippers kneeling at the side of the road wasn't injured or in need of some emotional support - to be able to appreciate it properly.
With a bit of help from Twitter, where I posted the photo, and also the Shropshire Hills AONB, I was able to identify the plant as a Broad Leaved Helleborine.
One rather unusual aspect of the plant on our road verge was that it was covered in wasps. Apparently this particular plant exudes the smell of dead meat, which is particularly attractive to wasps, who then come and fertilise it ( thanks to my friend Heather from Connecticut @forfeng on Twitter who found that out for us )
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