It may have been 50 years ago, but Nick Fry remembers his first encounter with an orchid vividly.

“I was out with my mum in Kent, on the North Downs,” he says.

“I came across a bee orchid. They are mimics and they come out before the summer bees come out. They send out a pheromone which attracts the bees that pollinate the flower.

“That sparked an interest.”

Nick grew up with a passion for being outside in the natural world, but his interest in orchids lay dormant until he received one as a gift.

“My neighbour gave me an orchid about 30 years ago and that was it, I was hooked then,” he says.

“I like photography and painting and going out into the world, so it just puts it all together.”

Nick’s Ferndown home is now a haven for many different species of the plant, stood on kitchen shelves, in pots on conservatory windowsills and even hanging from trellises on the wall.

And then there’s the greenhouse, not to mention the hefty stack of books on orchids on the kitchen table.

Nick has a particular interest in the middle South American varieties, and, while he enjoys the challenge of growing them at home – it can sometimes take several years to see a flower – he said there was nothing like seeing them in the real world.

“Two years ago I went to South America with one of my friends to a rainforest near Rio. We spent two weeks trekking out there and looking at things in the wild.

“Seeing things in the wild is completely different. It brings their character out.”

Orchids can range in size from two inches to four feet tall and there are approximately 25,000 to 30,000 species in the wild, with new sub species emerging all the time.

Nick admits a lot of his knowledge comes from being a member of Bournemouth Orchid Society, which is currently working hard to attract new members, particularly those from the younger generation.

But what is it about orchids in particular that he finds so fascinating?

“It’s something about the range,” he smiles.

“They go from being beautiful to being bizarre, to being intriguing and being fascinating.”

  • Bournemouth Orchid Fair and Show takes place on Sunday, September 21 from noon to 4pm at Allendale Community Centre in Hanham Road, Wimborne. For more details call show manager Chris Broomfield on 07712 479056 or visit erythos.com/bos