A late start to the season

Today Gerry & I put out the path guide tapes and unlocked the lower gate onto the orchid slope – thus marking the first official day of the orchid season. The weather up there was cold and very cloudy with a keen breeze at times. The paths are already very muddy and we are keen to limit erosion on the slope to a few key places so please follow the marker tapes.

The season seems to be very late because the 2 Lady orchids have only really just started flowering fully and just 1 hybrid has broken bud. There are plenty more hybrids in tight bud, which might open this weekend but I would advise people to delay their visits until next weekend. No Monkey orchids are even showing buds yet and it will probably be 2 weeks before they are open in any numbers.

The good news is that the washed-out April has watered the plants in nicely and they are going to flower in good numbers. But the flip-side of that is that we are likely to loose a fair few spikes to the slugs and snails – I already spotted 1 hybrid with a broken spike (see below).