Tuesday 2 July 2013

UK common spotted orchid

The new garden is going to have to contain more than just succulents. It's likely there will be a fair amount of shade planting along one side and with that in mind I have been slowly adding interesting plants for under planting. 

Every year on the trips around Savill Gardens I notice the native spotted orchids, dactylorhiza fuchsii, they seemed an ideal addition.  The fact they can have different colour flowers and can hybridise only added to the attraction. At this years plant fair I invested in a couple.  They were small and not very interesting at the time, but in the last couple of weeks have come into their own. 

As you can see these all have pale purple flowers, which is a bit of a shame, but they are still lovely plants.  A friend kindly sent me a link on how to divide them; removing the soil, looking for the new tubers and splitting them off.  Apparently if done at the right time, both plants will then multiply over the rest of the summer dramatically increasing the number of plants.  I am obviously going to have to try it once the flowers start to die back.


With extra plants I can try them out in different locations; at Savill Gardens they are found in almost every location including the gravel garden. They would look good, scattered in among my succulents, giving a different set of colours to the flowers at this time of year.

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