Orchid update

It's been a good if somewhat strange Orchid season (so far). A lot of Common Spotted rosettes were seen early- for four years I have recorded the number of rosettes spotted by 28th May. The totals for 2017- 2019 were 61, 68 and 67 respectively. The total Common Spotteds for those years were 131, 204 and 206. This year the 28th May total was 208! Actually there are a number of factors in play- first of all this year the season for flowers is clearly ahead of usual- maybe by a week or even two. Secondly the dry April and the trend through management to reduce grass volumes, has kept grass growth low so the rosettes are much easier to spot. As of today the Common Spotted count is at 268 so that is a healthy increase of 30% and there is still a chance of spotting a few more but at the end of May I was wondering how many there might be based on that huge increase from 2019. The only slightly negative factors are that I have only recorded 17 Broad-leaved Helleborines so far and last year I had 23. There's still time though so I'll leave a final report until the end of June.