Plant of the week

COMMON SPOTTED ORCHID, DACTYLORHIZA FUCHSII

NURTURE this lovely wildflower in

your garden. The flowers come in shades of lilac-mauve, freckled with darker purple. The long, narrow leaves are deep green and peppered with dark spots. In the wild, Britain’s most common orchid thrives in damp pastures or meadows, flowering now. In a garden, they’re happy in most soils provided they do not dry too rapidly.