A BROMESBERROW man who is considered the country's leading authority on orchids has just returned home from his 50th Chelsea Flower Show.

Alan Greatwood has been a judge at the London show for the past 20 years, but has been an exhibitor and visitor there since 1950.

He has about 800 orchids in his own private collection consists but he still has a long way to go before he can boast ownership to the whole family - there are about 30,000 species and in addition, a further 80,000 hybrids.

This diversity is one of the reasons Mr Greatwood offers for his abounding interest in the plants.

"You can find orchids from Greenland to the equator and from sea level to about 14,000 feet, so not only are they a diverse group of plants but their habitat is equally as diverse," he said.

Mr Greatwood said the standard of orchids at this year's Chelsea Show was very good.

"The main difference over my 50 years is that in the early days the orchids were very big, whereas now you get smaller species but the standard is still extremely high," he said.

"Another major change is that years ago orchids were mainly grown by wealthy people but now almost anyone could grow an orchid plant, so the trade in orchids has increased tremendously."

Mr Greatwood also judged at the Spring Gardening Show at the Three Counties Showground recently and has been invited to cast his eyes over the flowers at this year's Autumn show at the same venue, where he said he won gold medals himself in the past. He is also president of the Cheltenham and District Orchid Society, has contributed to books and travels across the country giving lectures.

"You don't earn much money in this business but you do make a lot of friends," he said.