EXOTIC orchids will be in full bloom next month with the start of Chester Zoo’s annual festival celebrating the flower.

The event is just one of the ways that Chester Zoo will be marking Cheshire’s Year of the Gardens – a celebration designed to tie in with the Capital of Culture.

In conjunction with the National Association of Flower Arranging Societies (NAFAS), and the Pulford-based Grosvenor Garden Centre, the zoo’s gardeners are putting together stunning orchid displays.

Mark Sparrow, the zoo’s Curator of Botany and Horticulture, said: “Zoo experts will be on hand with advice and tips about how to care for plants, and even children can get involved with activities in the Grow Zone.

“As well as seeing the many stunning orchid displays, visitors can also tour our greenhouses to see the rest of the zoo’s plant collection.”

The orchid displays will be in the zoo’s Realm of the Red Ape orang-utan enclosure, Tropical Realm, Oakfield Manor, the Grow Zone and Guest Services building at the main entrance.

Cheshire’s Year of Gardens 08 is part of an initiative to unlock the tourism-boosting potential of more than 20 of Cheshire’s leading garden attractions.

THE festival takes place from Tuesday, February 12, to Sunday, February 17, during Zoo opening times, 10am to 4.30pm.