Orchid awards for Frome student

Story posted on April 24, 2013

A FROME teenager was among a group of students who won an RHS gold medal at the London International Orchid Show. 

Each spring the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) hosts the London International Orchid Show featuring the best orchid nurseries from across Europe. Frome student Maisha Harvey was one of the group who produced an entry for the Writhlington School Orchid Project.

Maisha explained, “This was my first big show set up. Writhlington has been displaying at the show since 2003 and this year was our most successful yet. Our display won a coveted RHS Gold Medal and we carried off both of the top plant awards at the show.”

Chair of the RHS orchid judging committee, Johan Hermans, described the Writhlington display as outstanding especially in terms of the beautifully grown specimen plants, the quality of finish and the excellent information about the school’s conservation work in Rwanda.

The top plant awards at the show were ‘Best specimen plant’ which Writhlington won for the third year in succession, this time with an enormous plant of Coelogyne cristata, and ‘Best Orchid’ won by Writhlington’s Dendrobium thyrsiflorum.

Tom Forsythe, part of the set up team, noted “We are fortunate that after twenty two years of the orchid project we have grown some real monster plants. The only problem is that these plants are really difficult to transport to London and our Coelogyne now needs four people to carry it.”

The next chance to see Writhlington School’s orchids and orchid growers will be on July 4th when the school hosts the British premier of a new David Attenborough film about orchids, featuring the school. More details can be found from the school on 01761 433581.