On the theme of bees, I saw the Bee Orchid in flower up the Welcombe Hills today

I posted back in April that I'd found a group of Bee Orchid plants in the woods up the Welcombe Hills. On the theme of survival and since then have been keeping an eye on them and even moving branches to protect them. A few never really got going. Those winds we had a little while back scattered debris and some of the orchids broke. Two survived to grow the flower stems. Over the last few weeks buds appeared and finally today I saw that one had fully opened.

 As I've mentioned before, there are many bee orchid plants up the hills. Unfortunately though few get to flower because they aren't very good at selecting safe places to grow. Over the years a number of us have played the 'have you seen any bee orchids?' game. Some years there have been lots but often only a few. Last year I don't think we found one.