TWO men are celebrating their passion for orchids which represents a labour of love spanning nearly 70 years.

With 38 years service behind him, Keith Done is the longest serving employee of Chester Zoo’s botany and horticulture department and the zoo’s third longest-serving employee.

For most of his 38 years, Keith, 53, from, Chester has specialised in tending to some of the zoo’s rare and wonderful orchid species. And he is joined in his fascination by Steve Manning, an orchid expert who has donated half of his 1000-strong orchid collection to the zoo.

It is a shared passion that may now have lead to them possibly discovering a rare and as yet unnamed orchid.

As Keith says: “One thing you can say about orchids is that they are unpredictable. They can give you good times and they can give you bad times. They can be very tricky plants to care for.”

Keith’s fascination with orchids – his favourite is the Slipper – started not long after he started at the zoo, following in the footsteps of his father, Tom.

For Steve – who specialises in the group Pleurothallidinae which accounts for 12 per cent of all known orchids – his interest grew after a chat with a neighbour who also kept them.

Steve, 69, from Nantwich, has three orchids named after him and one named after his wife.

His fascination with the plant is as strong as it was when he first started out and he says: “It is the case that orchids chose me rather than me choosing them.”

Steve’s donation of his orchids to the zoo means the zoo collection is the most extensive public display of orchids in the North West.

Chester Zoo’s annual orchid festival will be held again next year from Tuesday, February 12 to Sunday, February 17. Displays will be on show in Realm of the Red Ape, Tropical Realm, Oakfield Manor and Grow Zone.

The show will be one of the highlights of Cheshire Year of the Gardens 08 which aims to celebrate the best of Cheshire’s gardens.

On a recent trip to Germany, Steve picked up a species of orchid that, as yet, can’t be identified. Over the next few weeks, parts of the plant will be pickled in a special preservative before being shipped to Florida to the home of world-renowned orchid expert Carlisle Luer.

If he confirms that it is a new species, he will make a full botanical description of it but the choice of names will remain with Steve.

“What appeals to me about Pleurothallidinae is the sheer diversity of the plants – some have larger flowers, some flowers are just a millimetre in size. I enjoy their history, finding out how some of them came about and were discovered. After all this time, every day I am still learning something new about them and, as it seems, finding new species,” said Steve.

Steve frequently visits the zoo to review his collection, but it is Keith who tends and cares for and the other myriad of plants growing in the zoo’s specially constructed greenhouses.

Keith started at the zoo at a time when the greenhouses were used largely for growing some of the 80,000 bedding plants then used around the zoo each year.

As the zoo developed, Keith began working with some of the more tropical plants used in and around the animal houses before specialising in orchids which he describes as “tricky”.

Self-taught, Keith soon learnt about potting techniques, composting and the temperatures and conditions orchids need to flourish. Keith and Steve swap advice and tips but the best advice Keith ever received came from his father.

“My dad worked at a nursery for 30 years before coming to the zoo and I followed in his footsteps when I left school. He’s instilled in me certain things like always keep your workplace tidy and invest in quality not quantity but his best tip was always about watering. Watering is the most difficult thing to grasp and get right,” he says.

For more on Chester Zoo’s gardens visit www.chesterzoo.org.

For more on Year of the Gardens, visit wwwyearofgardens08.com.