A POSTMAN with a passion for orchids showed his love for his wife by naming an award-winning flower after her.

Tom Watson, from Darlington, picked up three accolades for an orchid he entered at the Newbury International Orchid Show, in Berkshire.

The evergreen flower, a disa uniflora, was given an orchid of excellence rosette, the Heather Brown Cup for best disa and a cultural commendation from the Royal Horticultural Society.

The society's commendation meant Mr Watson, of Beech Road, was able to give his orchid a name, in case others want to produce hybrids of it in the future.

"I called it Deborah Ann, after my wife," he said. "The disa is a difficult plant to cultivate and you have got to have really good plants to get something like that from the RHS.

"It was a tremendous achievement because you have got people from all over the world there."