First Bee Orchid flowering in our meadow

We are very excited at the nursery after spotting the first bee orchid to flower in our meadow. 

We are working to restore our field to traditional Portland limestone grassland. When we moved in three and half years ago the field was dense scrub and our management has been to clear the scrub (apart from scrub island we are leaving), sowing Dorset limestone grassland seed and then doing hay cut in August followed by cuts to replicate winter grazing in October and again in December. 

This simple approach has led to the blossuming of extraordinary diversity including four blue butterfly species, glow worms, reptiles and this week our first Bee Orchid.

We weren't expecting bee orchids to appear for at least five years from the start of habitat restoration and so it was wonderful to spot this beyond the glasshouses today in an area only cleared two years ago.

We do have the advantage of low nutrient calcereous soil from past grassland management of the site overlying limestone and lots of wild areas with bee orchids within a few hundred yards of our meadow. 

We will record numbers of flowering plants in the years ahead.

Come and meet us at the RHS Orchid Show, Wisley - March 13th-15th

We are excited to be exhibiting at the prestigious RHS Orchid Show at Wisley this month. The show takes place at the home of the Royal Horticultural Society (and is open from 10am to 4pm each day. Of course you can also enjoy the wonderful RHS gardens and their are special free tours available of the RHS Herbarium and Orchid Collections. We are delighted to be welcoming RHS Glasshouse staff and students to help us on our stand.

We have prepared a new display and have some really species plants from the nursery on our sales table.

To book tickets and find out more visit the RHS website

Check out our new page describing how we grow orchids from seed

At Isle of Portland Orchid we grow orchids from seed in our propagation laboratory from the 600+ species we have in our collection. We hand pollinate flowers and collect ripe seed when the seed pod split 6 to 12 months later.

Orchid seed is very small and has no food supply for the developing embro. In the wild a seed depends on being invaded by a mycorrhizal fungus that the seed digests for the sugars and minerals it needs to develop. In our propagation laboratory we provide the sugars and minerals in a sterile nutrient jelly. All work must be done microbe free as a single bacteria or fungal spore would contaminate and destroy the seed.

Follow this link to find out more about how we grow orchids from seed