It is less than a week to go until we fly to Kuching for our first Sarawak expedition and the Mendip Lab is piled high with boxes of micropipettes, pressure cookers, vortex mixers and everything else you need to build an orchid propagation laboratory. We are pleased to hear that the Laminar Flow Cabinet has already arrived by air-freight, and work is progressing at MRSM School to prepare the laboratory space ready for our arrival.

If anyone remembers BBC’s Ground Force, with Alan Titchmarsh, Charlie Dimmock and Tommy Walsh –  I feel that my team are the in-vitro gardening equivalent, ready to turn your unwanted store room into a thriving orchid lab in under a week – what great TV it would make – Watch this space to see the Kuching episode unfold.