Today in the orchard
Lady’s-slipper, BRC, May, 2025
The sun finally emerged, and the rain-rain has gone away and, if we’re lucky, it will not come back until another day, post-bloom. Meanwhile the Pink Lady's-slippers (Cypripedium acaule) have made their annual appearance. We see them in the woods and also in the “BRC” orchard. That’s the orchard that we’ve intentionally allowed to do its own thing. Perhaps as a consequence of our laissez-faire approach, we haven’t scared away all the locals who have been living on this piece of the land for the past few thousand years. (We love our blackberries even if they can be rather aggressive.) Maine has four Lady’s-slippers. We occasionally see the white one though the vast majority of ours—including the ones in the orchard—are the pink.
