Gardener's update - a bee orchid and a tulip tree

6 days until summer

Summer will begin on 20th June. This year the seasons feel different, I feel I have been robbed of Spring. I was lucky enough to see some of my favourite sights: a bird flying with a sticks to its nest, fluffy chicks swimming in ponds, daffodills wobbling in the sunlight, yet the weather wasn’t right. We didn’t get the blissful Spring afternoons, I instead was greeted with confused butterflies and bumble bees who had woken early by the peaked temperatures only to drop the following day .

This Winter only provided a few frosts, the cherry trees blossomed one month early. The blossom usually supplies an abundance of pollinators. I remember standing beneath a cherry tree during lockdown, the whole tree was humming with hungry buzzing wings however this year I stood beneath and it was silent. The pollinators weren’t there collecting this valuable food source. Nature isn’t able to go through evolution to catch up with the evolving seasons and it feels dangerous. See Seth Hughes discuss it in further detail. 🐝

I don’t like to linger on how nature is being affected by climate change. I've been outside for eight years and I really do notice the change. There are less pollinators, no butterflies, fewer birds each year and I feel my heart is breaking a little.

A honey bee pollinating an astrantia

A few things to be hopeful about:

🐝 A bee orchid (Ophrys apifera)

One of my clients has had a bee orchid arrive in her garden. It’s a very natural garden, I don’t mow regulary, it’s full of native and non native species - the grass becomes long, there are climbers and trees providing an abundance of habitats. Whenever I arrive at her garden, there is a thriving ecosystem of birds, pollinators and even a few sweet rat, who I once found gorging itself on their late guinea pigs food.

This orchid is special, it uses ‘pseudocopulation’ to pollinate, the flower taking on the form of a female bee, a male bee will try to mate with the flower and in turn, pollinate it. As the bee which pollinates this orchid is also rare, this wonderful plant is able to self pollinate.

Whilst I worked, it happily wobbled behind me in the grass as if a happy observer.

🌷A tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera)

This is my favourite tree (my favourite tree is always changing) - I’ve been thinking a lot about this tree lately and if it fate wished it towards me, I found one. It takes its name from the tulip like yellow flowers it produces during June and July. These flowers are small and insignificant and may not be noticed from a distance, or even from walking beneath, however when you really look, the flowers have such intricate detail.

🕊️ Bird of the week:

A house sparrow - I was in my hometown last weekend. My father and I went for a walk to listen to bird song and came across a lot of these sparrows. They are little and brown, cheeping in hedges. They live in colonies and mate for life <3

🌸 Flower display of the week:

Antirrhinum from a clients garden, it was already snapped so took it home and it’s lasting well :-)

I also bought a second hand book on butterfly and moth identification and it makes for good bedtime reading.