Top News

There is a simple way to allow orchids to grow better in your and it doesn't require any effort at all. Gardening habits are always changing and evolving and recently, there is one trend that more and more gardeners are jumping on. Just last month, gardeners across the UK and around the world took part in , which essentially saw them not mowing their grass for the whole month of May.

While many gardeners like to keep their outdoor space clean and tidy with finely trimmed grass, others let their grass grow undisturbed to . This, one expert has said, has led to orchids "popping up" in many British gardens. Speaking to the Daily Express at the , orchid expert Johanna Hutchins from the Chicago Botanic Garden explained how orchids benefit from grass being left to grow uninterreupted for a stretched period of time, rather than being cut regularly.

She said: "There are a lot of people who have come up to this display over the years who, once No Mow May became a thing, started seeing a whole bunch of native orchids just popping up in their yards.

"Even if orchids do come up, if people mow before they have set seeds, then obviously they're not going to be able to expand for the ."

Hutchins explained the importance of orchids in a garden, revealing that they are not just aesthetically-pleasing flowers but plants that serve a number of purposes.

She explained: "They're part of the ecosystem everywhere.

"Orchids are a really good indicator of environmental health because they are so connected to everything. They are dependent on mycorrhizal fungus for the seeds to germinate. And obviously they are dependent on pollinators too.

"If orchids are declining in an area, there is probably a lot more going on. So they're considered a canary in the coal mine."

"The native ones here, they help the local insects," she added. Hutchins revealed there are between 25,000 and 30,000 orchid species around the world and they are found on every continent except Antarctica.

According to the Royal Horticultural Society, easy orchids to grow in a UK garden include cymbidium, miltonia and paphiopedilum.