I remember the excitement many years ago when I first realised that the new plant I had discovered was an orchid. Being a bit of a gardener, I felt sure I could grow them at home and so returned later on to collect the seeds. I imagined them to be the size of sweet pea seeds. I was disappointed to find nothing but dust.
Reading about orchids I soon realised that they produce spores not seeds and that propagating the wild ones from spores is both an art and a Science developed by the expert botanists at Kew. No chance for me then.
Later on I found one or two friends in whose gardens orchids has simply arrived so imagine my delight when three years ago the first spotted orchid appeared in our garden on an untreated grassy bank. The plant has grown stronger each year and the only nurturing it gets is my admiration. This is our orchid - it may not be wild in the sense of growing out in the countryside but it arrived here just as the wild ones would have.
Our Garden, 27th June 2002
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Added on November 9th 2004