April

There have been varied reports from the 2025/26 season on the potential challenges that shoots have faced.

We have around 50 native species of orchid in the UK. While many are spectacularly beautiful, some are the very opposite of the big supermarket specials – tiny plants with little green flowers that can be very hard to find as they hide amongst the surrounding vegetation.

Recent concerns around avian diseases such as trichomonosis have triggered warnings from the RSPB, and others that bird feeders may no longer always be a helpful way to connect to nature in our gardens, particularly during the summer months. New “feed seasonally, feed safely” guidelines hope to slow the spread of disease, which is largely blamed for declines in species such as greenfinches and chaffinches.