Spotted these glorious Early-Purple Orchids (Orchis mascula) on a sunny verge this evening. Absolutely stunning and living up to its name of ‘Early’. 14th April in full flower. I’m no hardy orchid expert, but I do like them a lot. I’ve grown Dactylorhiza sp. before, but I have no experience of most UK species other than spotting them in the wild on occasion. I once met a man called David Lang at a talk that I was giving to a Horticultural club. He had written a few books on native flora and a particularly interesting book on his time in the Sikkim. I bought all of his books from Amazon. He was lovely and absolutely fascinating to chat with. I did feel that him talking on his experiences would have been more interesting to listen to than me talking about perennial plants, but that was not the order of the day. Anyway, I read about the Early-Purple Orchid in David’s book tonight and he said he saw it in flower in Sussex (where I am) at almost exactly the same time I’m very different weather 54 years ago in 1966. Quote as below. ‘The Early-Purple Orchid lives up to its name and is often the first orchid to flower in the spring. I have even seen flowers fully out on 13 April 1966, in Sussex, standing up bravely above a heavy fall of snow. The flowering period is long and plants will still be found in flower in mid-June.’ David Lang from ‘A Guide to the Wild Orchids of Great Britain and Ireland’ 1989 2nd Ed. Fascinating! #orchids #uknativeflora #wildflowers #ukorchids #earlypurpleorchid #davidlang #meadow #verge #eastsussex #crowborough #purple (at Crowborough, East Sussex) https://www.instagram.com/p/B--kBu2gDvr/?igshid=3r27wmdodxkq