Wild orchids taking hold in city

It is hard to believe that under this carpet of stunning purple orchids lies a landfill site.

But thanks to the efforts of Ian Truman, this former Wednesfield eyesore has been transformed into a stunning meadow.

The 64-year-old retired professor from Penn has transformed more than a dozen blots on Wolverhampton's landscape over the past 27 years.

His desire to spruce up neglected plots of land came following a trip to Holland in 1981, where he was taught the skill of sowing hay to produce orchids. And back home, the former professor of plant ecology at Wolverhampton University set about sprucing up pieces of land which had been left to rot as eyesores.

After talks with Wolverhampton City Council's landscape architect Peter Millett, the pair decided that a former landfill site in Kitchen Lane, Wednesfield, would be the perfect spot to create a stunning meadow.

Grass had been laid over the site but they decided it needed a splash of colour. After scattering over the hay in 1994 with the help of students from the university, it took another four years before the green-winged orchids began to flourish. Mr Truman said: "This area is a landfill site which had been levelled over and covered with grass. It has made a big improvement. The orchids are not in flower for very long but at the moment they look lovely."

Among the other meadows Mr Truman has created is on a piece of land next to the Windmill Hill woods in Wightwick. His efforts have been recognised by being put forward to celebrate Wolverhampton's bids in the Heart of England in Bloom competitions over the past two years.