Near the beginning of this year I began to make a few plans this summer to search for more wild orchids. Last year I found 6 of Minnesota’s wild orchids and my goal this year is to add 4 more. That would make 25% of Minnesota’s native species of orchids. While formulating places and times to search for some of these, the Showy Orchis was on my list for a couple of reasons. First, it’s the earliest of wild orchids to bloom. Secondly, it’s supposedly blooming within 10 minutes of my house making it an easy one to add to the list. Memorial Day weekend was my plan for searching for blooming orchids. A couple of weeks earlier I began scouting possible locations for this species which I briefly wrote about in A Cold Mid May Morning. Then a few days later I heard they were found at the very same park I was searching at before. Unfortunately I had to end my search the week before as there were things that needed to be done. So I returned and continued to the location I was heading for initially and there they were. If I had been able to keep going I would have found them as they were beginning to open their beautiful pink and white flowers with a addicting sweet fragrance.

Unfortunately it was a cloudy night with daylight fading so capturing these first orchids of the year would be more of a challenge. I still took time to photograph them just in case this would be the only time I see them this year. I found a cup nearby which someone had dropped or lost and used that as a makeshift tripod and began clicking away trying to find the best composition to show their interesting flowers. After some time I moved on just to see if there were populations in other areas wondering how well established they were in this park. Unfortunately that was the only spot I managed to find the Showy Orchis on this trip but I did find a couple of other fun things.

One of these was mamma duck escorting her newly hatched little ducklings around the edge of a pond. Staying and watching for more time would have been a lot of fun but my goal was to find orchids, not baby ducks so I moved on. Along the way I also came across Nodding Trillium which  was a little surprising to me. Trillium is one of my favorite spring wildflowers and one I’m working on establishing in my own yard. Both of these findings help identify when the Showy Orchis is most likely blooming. The calendar is great but it doesn’t take into account the differences in spring weather which affect plant growth and blooming time. Having some other indicators can be quite helpful for a higher probability of success. Off to a good start! I hope my next wild orchid hunt returns the success I’ve experienced already.