Minera Quarry 2nd July 2023 (SJ 25156 52172) 

The visit today is to look for any hybrids - minera has thrown up a few unusual ones over the last few years. None have been reported on social media this year, but I will have a look on the flattish area above the big hole where I have seen some previously. On the way up there though we explore a small previously unexplored area off the path. All the usual suspects are here - Common Spotteds, Northern Marsh, Pyramidal, Marsh Fragrant and Common Twayblades. The Fragrants boast some fine examples, whilst the Common Spotted look good beneath the trees at the lower end.

Anyway there are no hybrids to be seen this year. Are they all short-lived or something? However more nice Pyramidals are seen in a range of shades and a nice family group of Common Spotted to be spotted (hee hee). There is also a pure white Marsh Fragrant Orchid. I have seen this form in the quarry a few years ago, but in a quite different area. Nice to see the genes are persisting. I also note that the Bee Orchids are even more numerous than I first thought and it includes more of the var, badensis sepaloid forms. A resupinate Common Spotted is also an interesting find.

Wenlock Edge 11th July 2023 

A trip home from Birmingham gave a chance to divert to Much Wenlock. Here, a few years ago we were treated to a fine display of Pyramidal Orchids in the verges alongside the road to Craven Arms. This year we are not so lucky. At first, driving along slowly, I think they are all gone, but on seeing a few, pull over and take a look. There are more than I thought at first glance, but they are swamped by long grass, and largely hidden Clearly a change in mowing policy by the council.

Blae Tarn 13th July 2023

A day trip to the Lake District in the hope of seeing some Bog Orchids that I heard about a while back. The journey within the park was a bit tortuous, with narrow lanes, congestion in the villages and some near impossible gradients. However the spot was found, but a 90 minute search over several flushes running down the hillside from the road yielded none of the Boggies. Were we too early, or had they been and gone. Perhaps the very dry weather earlier in the year had dried up the flushes and done for these plants in 2023. There were consolations. Heath Spotted Orchids grow here and the flushes were home to three carnivorous plants, Drosera rotundifloia, D. intermedia and Pinguicula vulgaris. A disappointing day was rounded off by more motorway holdups meaning diverting on the way home adding an hour to the journey. This time it was the M56.

Alyn Waters 19-20th June 2023 

Visits to check on the Helleborines this year, with Llay side on the first day and the the Gwersyllt side on the next. I do not know what I was hoping to see that I have not seen before, but whatever it was it did not happen! The Dune Helleborines were already going over to some extent, but the Green-flowered Helleborines looking as good as ever, some even with quite open undrooping flowers. At the spot were I looked at possible hybrids last year there were both species together again, but nothing to suggest hybrids this year. A single Broad-leaved Helleborine was a surprise as they do not seem to like the Llay side normally.

Over in Gwersyllt nothing really to talk about that is new. Both Dune Helleborines and Broad-leaved Helleborines are fine, with both very pale and very dark flowers for the latter. The little glade where they grow side by side has become quite overgrown with brambles and clear area is more of a path than a glade now.

Maes y Pant 23rd July 2023 (SJ 35397 55187)

For the last two years this has two years this has been a great Helleborine site, but not 2023. We are late for the scanty Broad-leaved Helleborines, though there was a nice pale flowered specimen at its peak, late for the scanty Dune Helleborines, though there was a nice variegated leaf form minus a spike, and the Green-flowered Helleborines just scant, even when we strayed into Marford Quarry area where normally a small number can be relied on. Here again everything seemed overgrown in the orchid areas.

Minera Lead Mines and Railway 24th July  (SJ261518)

If the rest of the months visits have been a bit disappointing at least here does not. Starting at the lead mines and old workings around there, we then follow the course of the railway, across the road to Worlds End, and onto close to the quarry. There are Broad-leaved Helleborines literally in their thousands in all sizes and colours. If you have ever wondered where Farrow & Ball get their inspiration for their paint colours, have a look at these flowers. Where a large depot once stood, now demolished, you can see BLH coming through a pile of bricks and concrete in a rather unique rock garden. Further along there is the spoil heap. This seems to be where the ash from the large quarry kilns was dumped.it is a pile some 10m tall, 100m long and 50m wide. From the quarry end you can see the sleepers of the tramway used to transport the waste still in position. On top it is another world. Stunted birch, a moss floor and Yellow Birds Nest. Oh! and there are pale lanky Pyramidal Orchids, Marsh Fragrant orchids and Common Twayblades still in flower and glistening in the sun like burnished bronze.