Common Spotted Orchids

These are getting really well established in the rough margins around my plot:

 

Very pretty Scrungee, we used to have a lot of bee orchids in the field behind the garden but they haven't reappeared for a good few years now

 

Lovely Scrunge

 

Yes, well worth the effort of strimming some areas each year so they don't get covered in brambles. There was only half a dozen or so at first, but I reckon there's a few hundred of them now. If only my cowslips would spread as easily. I keep trying to get a pic of those orchids with a good looking insect perched on one, so far without success.

 

Mine are all yellow. It's just that I can't seem to get them to spread out from where they're already established in the grass around the apple trees in my latest orchard area. Perhaps I need some advice on cowslip seed saving/propagation?

 

That's what I suspected - But I want to keep my 'wild ones' pure. It looks like you have loads of them growing under an apple tree - which is what I want under my apples.

 

It might be that they need more bare/trampled areas for the seed to germinate in and establish without too much competition from the grass. If the sward is too thick it might be worth creating some gaps and spreading the seed there.