Val Bourne Wildlife
The appearance of common spotted orchids in Val’s garden remind her of a visit to Great Dixter 25 years ago
IWAS seduced by meadows more than 25 years ago, after visiting Christopher Lloyd’s Great Dixter garden in East Sussex. It was May, and as we went along the lanes there were patches of deep-pink hardy orchids. When I arrived at the garden I was surprised to see that the meadows surrounding Great Dixter were studded with common spotted pink orchids (Dactylorhiza fuchsii) as well.
The garden was wonderful. It was a Sunday and there was a smell of roast beef. Bang on cue, Christopher and his two dachshunds appeared. Sadly, he passed away in 2006, but I treasure his books and Meadows, published in 2005, is my favourite.
Great Dixter was acquired by Christopher Lloyd’s parents in 1910. It had been on the agent’s book for 10 years and was semi-derelict. There was no garden at all, just areas of meadows and apple trees. Christopher was the youngest of six children born to Nathaniel and Daisy Lloyd, and he lived there for his entire life.
By 1912, Great Dixter had become a comfortable family home with central heating and electric lighting. Inside, staff included a domestic staff of five or more. Outside there were nine gardeners, until World War I struck, when part of the house became a hospital. A total of 380 wounded soldiers passed through the temporary wards created at the house.
One picture (see above) on the Great Dixter website ( greatdixter.co.uk ) shows nurses and recovering soldiers helping out in the hayfield, because it was vital to cut the meadow and pick it all up. If you leave grass on top of a field, it decomposes and the soil gets too much nitrogen – which is what happens on most of our road verges.
Although the architect Edwin Lutyens influenced the house and garden, the meadows were the creation of Christopher’s mother Daisy before World War I. She was the driving force behind the garden, but very few gardeners of that era recognised the value of wildflowers, or their importance. She began planting in 1910.
Orchid collecting is illegal now, but
Christopher admitted he and his mother would “sally forth with fern trowels and a large trug basket between us in quest of our booty in the 1920s and 1930s”. They removed the bulbous root and a wadge of soil, so they got the mycorrhizal fungi orchids need for food. It wasn’t illegal then, and the sites they collected from have now been lost to intensive agriculture or scrub.
He wrote that it was “useless trying to naturalise orchids that are not native to the area where you live”. The bee orchid was not for them, for instance, because it didn’t grow locally. Daisy died in 1972, aged 91, but the meadows continued to be carefully managed. Meadow cutting is still delayed until insect activity has slowed down and the seeds are set.
Dense colonies of common spotted orchids have come to populate grass in both the garden and fields. Chain harrowing and strewing has brought sheep pasture back to a predominantly floral landscape. In the garden, seedheads are left for the birds to feed on in winter. As a result, Great Dixter has a biodiverse ecosystem that’s admired all over the world.
My own small meadows are a mere 15 years old, and I had to use nursery forms of Dactylorhiza fuchsii. I planted 30 common spotted orchids and they were doing well until the searingly hot summer of 2018. They disappeared completely in 2019 and 2020, and I thought they had gone forever.
However, I’m delighted to say that my natives have returned, and I have 10 clumps again. It may not be the thousands found at Great Dixter, but
I get just as much joy from them.
“I’m delighted that my natives have returned”