Spring is one of the most beautiful and uplifting times of year in our orchards and feels full of promise. March is too early to see much blossom with most apple varieties blossoming between mid-April and June but buds will be forming and new leaves springing out in their brightest of greens.

What may well be in flower are wildflowers amongst the grasses growing beneath the trees. In a traditional orchard, the grass would often be cut for hay in the summer then sometimes grazed by sheep or cows over winter with no other fertilizers added. This results in a meadow bursting with a variety of grasses and wildflowers and you can still see examples of lovely orchard meadows in Herefordshire. Wildflowers to look out for in March and April include pretty yellow primroses, delicate lady’s smock, dog violets and the bright yellow lesser celandine. In some places you may be lucky to see swathes of native daffodils nodding in the spring breeze.

Queen bumblebees will be out and about on milder days looking for good nest sites and making the most of the nectar within those spring flowers. Look for white-tailed bumblebees, tree bumblebees and the aptly named early bumblebee. Smaller mining bees will also start to come out in march – the tawny mining bee is particularly striking. Other smaller orchard inhabitants may be less easy to spot, making the most of crevices in the bark of older trees to shelter. Ladybirds often cluster together beneath the bark of trees and many types of beetle will be hidden in old trees too.

One of the reasons orchards are so good for wildlife is that fruit trees are relatively short lived so they mature quickly and it is these old trees with their nooks and crannies, dropped and decaying branches and hollow trunks. In spring, many of these holes are becoming nesting spaces for a wide variety of birds including owls and woodpeckers. Britain’s smallest and rarest woodpecker, the lesser spotted woodpecker, relies on old trees with decaying wood to provide nesting sites. They also can be seen feeding high up in the deadwood too, routing around for insects. In 2021, there were records of lesser spotted woodpecker at only five sites in Herefordshire so we must do everything we can to increase the number of traditional orchards in the county.