Garden joy

We have orchids in almost every room of the house and love them because they stay in flower for so long.
But none possibly give us as much joy as this one — a wild orchid growing in the garden. I really knew little about wild orchids until my wife came in from the garden enthusing over this one she had found in a border.
Initially she was tempted to simply dig it up and throw away, in the belief that it was another weed. Which are the bane of every gardener’s life.
Yet the more we, or rather she, examined this one, the more intrigued she became. So it was planted in a pot and given a modicum of care, and has rewarded us just for a few days every year, ever since.
I was surprised to learn than there are more than 50 species of  wild orchids growing in Britain and there are even specific areas around the country which are specially reserved for them.
One year we found a field not far from us between the New Forest and the Solent which had them growing in abundance. Oh, how we were tempted to add to our solitary specimen.
We do not know how ours came to appear in the garden, presumably dropped at some stage by a bird. Yet from a solitary stem and a single stalk of flowers, it has flourished and this year there are nine magnificent flowering stems.
Shame that unlike the cultivated ones we have indoors, the flowers do not last long, while some of those indoors will flower for seemingly months at a time., and it always gives us joy when one that has died off eventually recovers and bursts forth into flower again.

Yet while it lasts, this one brings untold joy.