Wow, what a couple of weeks. I’ve travelled overseas for the first time in 3 years, to enjoy a couple of weeks hiking in the Austrian Alps. The flower meadows and mountainsides were just stunning. For my #SixonSaturday here’s some of my memories of the native rock gardens, to celebrate wild plants.

I’ve always loved to hike, though these days hikes take longer and tend to be lower. However, I managed to view a whole range of habitats in both the Seefeld and Achensee regions by walking from the valley floor, or taking the gondola to start above 1700m. The best plant of the trip was found in fairly low level (900m-ish) dark, damp, shady forest. We saw just one flower in the whole trip, but WOW…ladies slipper in the wild.

Orchids abound in the wet damp forest clearings, most commonly (and really common, sometimes 10-20 flowers in each sq-m) the pink ones.

In sunnier spots there were often clumps of white flowers, that I THINK are also an orchid species.

Another favourite landscape for the trip was the harsh quick-drying limestone. I had to look these up, but I think they are pyrola rotundiflora, appearing in large clumps at the very edge of limestone rubble areas.

Higher up, near the limestone peaks, anemonies appeared in the afternoons — though I’ve no idea where they were hiding in the morning.

Finally, and perhaps my favourite, the glory of the highest pastures, gentian were everywhere, glowing with blueness.

What a trip! I dreaded the travelling, and it wasn’t fun now I’m out of the habit, but what a beautiful magical landscape. By next weekend I’ll have had time to appraise what early summer has brought to my own garden. Stay safe, and don’t forget to follow the crowd on twitter and via the web from links to the originator of #SixonSaturday, the Propagator himself.