TAKE heart MD Packer (Your View - July 20), our native orchids are hardy plants and can survive incredible conditions.

About thirty years ago a garden on the Calthorpe Estate, Edgbaston, Birmingham, was allowed to become overgrown. The lawn had been laid as turf from a meadow in about 1840. It had been continuously mown for some 130 years.

However, amongst the long grass, orchids flowered. Who knows just what rare orchids survive in The Meadow to flower for a conservation-conscious Bromsgrove District Council!

John F Rice

Groveley Lane

Rednal