Snake’s head fritillaries

Our snake’s head fritillaries are coming into flower.

Wikipedia says that Fritillaria meleagris, the snake’s head fritillary: grows in grasslands in damp soils and river meadows at altitudes up to 800 m. As a result, we have spent several years trying and failing to establish fritillaries in Lambrok Meadow and the downhill damp part of Village Green. All that dibbing, planting and backache has, so far, resulted in a single, rather spindly, flower in Lambrok Meadow.

All these images were taken in the reserve’s copses and under its hedges, not in the damp meadows where fritillaries are supposed to grow.

Meanwhile, out in the driest of our woodland copses and under the oldest of our hedges, there are drifts of fritillaries flourishing without any help at all from us, and totally ignoring instructions from Wikipedia.

They are just beginning their short flowering period so keep an eye out for them.