We have been watching a colony of bee orchids on a patch of ground behind the school since January when we first spotted the rosettes of several plants. We arranged for our grounds contractors not to mow the area and today the first flower opened. This area was just covered with subsoil back when the school was built in 2008 and the resulting low nutrient habitat is fantastic for lots of wild flowers as well as the bee orchids. There is another orchid species in the area which we guess is a pyramidal orchid – we will let you know in June.