From Rugby to Orchids in the Hay Meadow at Plas Newydd.
Come and enjoy a magical Midsummer’s day walk in the Hay Meadows at Plas Newydd! These flower rich hay meadows are sure to conjure up childhood memories of the archetypal traditional farm setting. But sadly 97 per cent of them have disappeared since the 1930s giving way to modern hay production, improved with fertiliser and dominated by fast growing grasses devoid of colour and variety. Economic pressures have encouraged us to force ever more out of the land, but is this an own goal?
Plas Newydd is famous as the family seat of the Marquess of Anglesey and the permanent exhibition of Rex Whistler paintings. It also has a resurgent hay meadow now in its third year of encouragement. With no artificial fertilisers, the hay is cut in August and turned to dry, which also shakes out the seeds for next year.
The beauty of the meadow is the rich mix of plants flowering through the summer. There’s always a supply of nectar for bees and butterflies: common cats ear, germander speedwell, red clover, ox-eye daisy, knapweed and so on - but the orchids steal the show. The vibrant purple of the northern marsh (tegeirian y figin) contrasts with the gentle pink of the common spotted (tegeirian mannog) combining to create a massive and beautiful hybrid orchid. As for the butterfly orchid, it’s so splendid you’d expect it to be in a botanic garden not just a field.
© National Trust
When the flowers pass their peak and turn to seed, it’s feeding time for the birds, airlifting and depositing new generations into neighbouring fields.
Across Wales the National Trust is aiming to double the amount of land it manages as traditional hay meadows and the work at Plas Newydd is part of that plan, boosting biodiversity and reminding us what the countryside used to look like. Until recently this field was used by the nearby education centre as a rugby pitch. It’s strange to think that orchids grow out from ground once churned up by the studs of opposing scrums.
But this is what nature needs, ground receptive to new seeds. To this end cattle are put in to graze at the end of the summer, the weight of their hooves puncturing the earth to create a level playing field for new plants to become established.
'With time such meadows just get better and better. At the moment there are about 15 different species of plant in each square metre but in a few years we expect that to increase to 25'.
Helen Buckingham, Nature Conservation Advisor for the National Trust.
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