Last week we trans-located pyramidal and marsh orchids from an industrial estate in Warminster to Underhill Wood Nature Reserve (UWNR). This was 2 days of solid work, but we have very high hopes that these precious plants will thrive in their new location...safe from diggers and earth-movers!
2 stalwart friends & champions of UWNR, Jan Freeborn (ecologist and ecological consultant) and Louisa Kilgallen (head ecologist at Wiltshire Council), worked together to successfully nominate UWNR and then enable the trans-location.
Jan, Arthur Bryant (butterfly expert) and I did the digging and shifting - in total we dug close to 100 holes - all in very heavy clay!
Jan and Arthur carefully digging up the turves
The bagged orchids about to be transplanted at UWNR - Arthur and Jan sorting through the pyramidal orchids.
We selected the lake bank as the main location for the marsh orchids - this environment is low in fertility, damp and in full sun.