Climbing orchid poorly placed in front area (7)
I believe the answer is:
vanilla
'climbing orchid' is the definition.
'vanilla' can be an answer for 'orchid' (vanilla is a kind of orchid). I am unsure of the 'climbing' bit.
'poorly placed in front area' is the wordplay.
'poorly placed' becomes 'ill' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'front' becomes 'van' (I've seen this in another clue).
'area' becomes 'a' (maths abbreviation).
'van'+'a'='vana'
'ill' going into 'vana' is 'VANILLA'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for vanilla that I've seen before include "Subtle flavour pod" , "conventional" , "type of orchid" , "Tasty flavouring for ice-cream" , "Pods to flavour, ice-cream, say" .)