The gardener’s bucket list

THE ORCHID FIELDS in Jersey, Channel Islands, British Isles

The orchid fields in Jersey,

Channel Islands, British Isles

Roaming these pastures in spring, when they become a spectacular sea of wildflowers, is a must-do for orchid lovers, writes DERYN THORPE

I’m enjoying the birdsong of warblers while strolling through a wet meadow, admiring the spectacle of 90,000 herbaceous, perennial orchids. If you like the pastoral outdoors, you’ll love the island of Jersey in late spring to early summer, when hedgerows in small lanes are festooned with wildflowers, and you have the opportunity to see a diversity of wild orchids.

The best place to see the island’s largest display of wild orchids is Le Noir Pré and Clos de Seigneur, which are adjoining wet, marshy meadows in the parish of St Ouen in the north-west. The National Trust for Jersey owns and manages these sites to promote the growth of three orchid species and many hybrids. Each year, during the flowering season in May and June, the trust opens the gate and cuts a walking path that loops through the fields, so people can admire the orchids without trampling them.

Spectacular orchid species in the fields include the Jersey orchid ( Anacamptis laxiflora), which has flowers on stems up to 1m tall; the southern marsh orchid ( Dactylorhiza praetermissa), which grows to about 70cm high and has flowers with a broad, three-lobed lip; and the pyramidal orchid ( Anacamptis pyramidalis), which has pink flowers that have a three-lobed lip and long spur and form a pyramid-shaped flower head on stems up to 30cm high.

The orchids are counted biannually, and since 1995 the number of individual plants has risen from 1500 to 90,000.

This increase has been encouraged by the National Trust for Jersey’s management of the meadow ecosystem using traditional practices evolved over centuries by local farmers. In August, after the orchids have flowered and dispersed their seeds, the hay in the fields is cut and hand-baled by trust rangers. Then a small herd of Jersey cows is introduced to graze the fields in autumn. The cows retard the growth of grasses, leaving space for the orchids to grow.

These orchids depend on mycorrhizal fungi to help them access soil nutrients. Once paired with the fungi, a germinated seed develops into a tuber, but it’s several years until the orchid has stored enough energy to flower.

As well as species orchids – in mostly pink and mauve hues – and many hybrid orchids, there are about 80 other types of plants to admire in the fields, including meadow buttercup ( Ranunculus acris), pale pink cuckoo flower ( Cardamine pratensis) and dandelions.

CLOCKWISE FROM OPPOSITE PAGE Meadow buttercups mingle with Jersey orchids in the island’s famed orchid elds; as its name suggests, the pyramidal orchid features a densely packed pyramid of owers; Jersey cows graze the elds in autumn, boosting orchid numbers by retarding the growth of dominant plants such as grasses; the pretty southern marsh orchid occurs in these wet meadows.