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 very small seeds with no food store (very like spores) and that propagating from these tiny seeds needs the help of special fungi. Propagation of orchids is both an art and a science developed by orchid enthusiasts and 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 Common 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.

2008: Our single orchid has now died but it produced flowers for five years and scattered seeds each year so perhaps another will appear sometime.

The name "orchid" conjures up ideas of rarity and exotic flowers but D. fuchsii is actually one of the commonest native plants. Except for some areas of high ground in the far north of Scotland it is found all over the British Isles and Ireland.

LHS: Grassland next to A55, Old Colwyn 1st July 2008 RHS: Our Garden, 27th June 2002

Added on November 9th 2004, updated 11th December 2008