British cut flowers
by Sarah Raven
Harvesting Narcissi on the Isles of Scilly
Did you know that the retail value of the cut flower industry in Britain is worth over two billion pounds? That’s the same as the UK music industry, yet only 10% or those flowers are British grown, compared to nearly half twenty years ago. So that means, if we’re not growing them in our own gardens, we’re importing 90% of the flowers we have sitting on our tables and yet this country is one of the most perfect growing environments in the world.
Where food is concerned, we’re way ahead, with many of us now really seeking out locally grown vegetables, herbs and fruit in preference to those produced abroad. Air miles apart, we’ve cottoned on to the fact with buying local and seasonal, our food is likely to be fresher and better quality, with an ever changing variety of things to eat through the seasons.
Why do we not apply these same rules when we buy cut flowers? Most of us don’t even think about where the flowers have come from, yet of course there’s the same benefit of buying more locally as there is with food, giving a longer natural vase life and more beautiful, sympathetic seasonal flowers. Like eating strawberries at Christmas, do we really want imported roses on our tables 365 days of the year?
As we have remained apparently indifferent to where out flowers have come from, first rate British growers are giving up, unable to compete with the larger more efficient mono-cultural growing units in Holland and elsewhere. A dwindling band of British cut flower growers are still keeping going, but it’s time we reversed that trend.
I made a one hour film on this subject with Gardener’s World. We explored the idea of home-grown cut flowers, how to fill our houses with beautiful, locally grown flowers and visited many small scale specialist growers. We filmed at a tropical orchid flower farm near Chichester, and with the sweet pea grower, David Guscott, just down the road. We went to the Scilly Isles to visit the scented narcissus growers who supply the wonderful fragrant bunches through the leaner flower months of November to March. We went to Cornwall, to Lincolnshire and the fertile fens, and this week we went to the rose growers, Country Roses on the Essex/Suffolk border.
Country Roses are typical of the businesses from which I would like to buy my flowers. Danae and Robin Duthy have been growing cut flower roses since 2001 and are knowledgeable specialists in their field. They now have sixty different varieties and add new discoveries every year. They know, in every colour, which will give you the best vase life, or the best scent, which will dry the best for natural pot pouri or confetti at a wedding. They know which makes the best buttonholes and which will last best on a wedding hat and they’ll give you all this advice when you’re trying to work out which to buy.
Their roses are grown outside in fields, with crops produced from May to October, with conditions much the same as any garden rose. If it rains, the fully open flowers are damaged, but with most, so long as they are rigorously headed. there are more buds and flowers to form. The varieties are selected primarily for their beauty and fragrance which develops fully in the field environment, rather than being hurried along under glass, Or like the Dutch and Kenyan varieties bred to be without scent to extend their vase life. Many cut flower roses have almost lost their scent. As with sweet peas, the strongly perfumed varieties have shorter vase lives, and so most commercial growers avoid these like the plague. Country Roses have a different set of priorities, with some heavy and long producers on the farm, but they also grow the wonderful but short flowering forms like the Gallica rose ‘Charles de Mills’ and the once only flowering ‘Constance Spry’. For them, it’s the scent and beauty that matters, not the volumes that each bush produce.
What all this adds up to is a perfect bowl of roses which will fill a room with scent. Can these really be related to those over-pert, almost scentless, dull-as-ditchwater imported stems? Go local. Go seasonal and you’ll treasure the flowers you buy.
Country Roses Top recommendations for cut flower roses
These are chosen for their scent and the length of their vase life, which should be five to 10 days, depending on which stage they are picked. If they are just breaking, these roses will last at least a week. If they are picked fully open, it will be several days.
Constance Spry is the only rose listed here that is not repeat-flowering.
Princess Alexandra
This is a tall stemmed, usually single-headed, bright magenta pink with very few thorns. It lasts well over a week in the house and opens from a stylish pointed bud into an almost frilled rosette shape taking about seven days to go through the process. This is one of the best ever roses for cutting and arranging
L.D. Braithwaite
A deep vivid magenta red which is one tone on from pink. This is a vigorous plant which yields a rose with cupped shape and many petals. Its blue-ish tint mixes well with all our pale pinks and it has an intoxicating scent. A shrub rose, which needs a light prune in autumn and spring.
Big Purple
With this rose, you get what it says on the label. It is a dramatic, rich, deep purple, usually comes singly, on long stems which are not too thorny and last well in the vase. A Hybrid Tea rose which need a hard prune during the winter
Just Joey
Famous for its amber colour it starts almost orange while in bud and opens into a glorious deep gold which somehow avoids being yellow. This is spectacular for table decorations. Use it with single heads floating in a glass, or cut short but clustered in a bowl in the centre of the table. Lightly scented. A Hybrid Tea rose which need a hard prune during the winter
Isabella
This is one of their best reds. It has the quality of velvet and can appear almost black in certain lights. Wonderful on its own, or mixed with a pale peachy pink to show its depth of colour. It does not like the rain, but lasts well in the vase. A shrub rose, which needs a light prune in autumn and spring.
Louise Odier
This old French rose is a bright sunny pink with many heads and often comes as a spray. Lightly scented it has a good vase life and mixes well with other pinks. A shrub rose, which needs a light prune in autumn and spring.
Gertrude Jekyll
Names after the famous gardener, this is one of their best selling pinks. The pretty shape of its buds opens into a flat rosette and they have a good life span whether you use them tall in high vases, or nip them off short and float them. Wonderful scent. A shrub rose, which needs a light prune in autumn and spring.
Eveleyn
A pale many-petalled peachy rose with an overwhelmingly beautiful scent and the look and feel of an old fashioned cabbage rose. A shrub rose, which needs a light prune in autumn and spring.
Golden Celebration
A rich gold yellow as the name suggests, with a strong scent. Country Roses supplied this for Queen Elizabeth's 80th birthday celebrations. A shrub rose, which needs a light prune in autumn and spring.
Constance Spry
This is the quintessentially English rose with cupped pale pink petals, a little like Heritage, with the faint scent of myrrh. It often comes in arching sprays, lovely for tall arrangements, but is not repeat flowering. A shrub rose, which needs a light prune in autumn and spring.
Liliana
This pale peachy rose has many heads and big flowers, yet there is an appealing delicacy to the colours. Stems last a long time and it has a pretty scent. A shrub rose, which needs a light prune in autumn and spring.
Redoute
This is another old French rose which comes on early in the season, before the English pinks, and has a pretty many-petalled shape.
Compassion
This is one of our best spray roses, (along with Penny Lane and Buff Beauty), there are many heads on strong straight stems. The colour is an unusual coppery pink with a hint of apricot and the sprays are spectacular in tall arrangements. A Hybrid Tea rose which need a hard prune during the winter
Where food is concerned, we’re way ahead, with many of us now really seeking out locally grown vegetables, herbs and fruit in preference to those produced abroad. Air miles apart, we’ve cottoned on to the fact with buying local and seasonal, our food is likely to be fresher and better quality, with an ever changing variety of things to eat through the seasons.
Why do we not apply these same rules when we buy cut flowers? Most of us don’t even think about where the flowers have come from, yet of course there’s the same benefit of buying more locally as there is with food, giving a longer natural vase life and more beautiful, sympathetic seasonal flowers. Like eating strawberries at Christmas, do we really want imported roses on our tables 365 days of the year?
As we have remained apparently indifferent to where out flowers have come from, first rate British growers are giving up, unable to compete with the larger more efficient mono-cultural growing units in Holland and elsewhere. A dwindling band of British cut flower growers are still keeping going, but it’s time we reversed that trend.
I made a one hour film on this subject with Gardener’s World. We explored the idea of home-grown cut flowers, how to fill our houses with beautiful, locally grown flowers and visited many small scale specialist growers. We filmed at a tropical orchid flower farm near Chichester, and with the sweet pea grower, David Guscott, just down the road. We went to the Scilly Isles to visit the scented narcissus growers who supply the wonderful fragrant bunches through the leaner flower months of November to March. We went to Cornwall, to Lincolnshire and the fertile fens, and this week we went to the rose growers, Country Roses on the Essex/Suffolk border.
Country Roses are typical of the businesses from which I would like to buy my flowers. Danae and Robin Duthy have been growing cut flower roses since 2001 and are knowledgeable specialists in their field. They now have sixty different varieties and add new discoveries every year. They know, in every colour, which will give you the best vase life, or the best scent, which will dry the best for natural pot pouri or confetti at a wedding. They know which makes the best buttonholes and which will last best on a wedding hat and they’ll give you all this advice when you’re trying to work out which to buy.
Their roses are grown outside in fields, with crops produced from May to October, with conditions much the same as any garden rose. If it rains, the fully open flowers are damaged, but with most, so long as they are rigorously headed. there are more buds and flowers to form. The varieties are selected primarily for their beauty and fragrance which develops fully in the field environment, rather than being hurried along under glass, Or like the Dutch and Kenyan varieties bred to be without scent to extend their vase life. Many cut flower roses have almost lost their scent. As with sweet peas, the strongly perfumed varieties have shorter vase lives, and so most commercial growers avoid these like the plague. Country Roses have a different set of priorities, with some heavy and long producers on the farm, but they also grow the wonderful but short flowering forms like the Gallica rose ‘Charles de Mills’ and the once only flowering ‘Constance Spry’. For them, it’s the scent and beauty that matters, not the volumes that each bush produce.
What all this adds up to is a perfect bowl of roses which will fill a room with scent. Can these really be related to those over-pert, almost scentless, dull-as-ditchwater imported stems? Go local. Go seasonal and you’ll treasure the flowers you buy.
Country Roses Top recommendations for cut flower roses
These are chosen for their scent and the length of their vase life, which should be five to 10 days, depending on which stage they are picked. If they are just breaking, these roses will last at least a week. If they are picked fully open, it will be several days.
Constance Spry is the only rose listed here that is not repeat-flowering.
Princess Alexandra
This is a tall stemmed, usually single-headed, bright magenta pink with very few thorns. It lasts well over a week in the house and opens from a stylish pointed bud into an almost frilled rosette shape taking about seven days to go through the process. This is one of the best ever roses for cutting and arranging
L.D. Braithwaite
A deep vivid magenta red which is one tone on from pink. This is a vigorous plant which yields a rose with cupped shape and many petals. Its blue-ish tint mixes well with all our pale pinks and it has an intoxicating scent. A shrub rose, which needs a light prune in autumn and spring.
Big Purple
With this rose, you get what it says on the label. It is a dramatic, rich, deep purple, usually comes singly, on long stems which are not too thorny and last well in the vase. A Hybrid Tea rose which need a hard prune during the winter
Just Joey
Famous for its amber colour it starts almost orange while in bud and opens into a glorious deep gold which somehow avoids being yellow. This is spectacular for table decorations. Use it with single heads floating in a glass, or cut short but clustered in a bowl in the centre of the table. Lightly scented. A Hybrid Tea rose which need a hard prune during the winter
Isabella
This is one of their best reds. It has the quality of velvet and can appear almost black in certain lights. Wonderful on its own, or mixed with a pale peachy pink to show its depth of colour. It does not like the rain, but lasts well in the vase. A shrub rose, which needs a light prune in autumn and spring.
Louise Odier
This old French rose is a bright sunny pink with many heads and often comes as a spray. Lightly scented it has a good vase life and mixes well with other pinks. A shrub rose, which needs a light prune in autumn and spring.
Gertrude Jekyll
Names after the famous gardener, this is one of their best selling pinks. The pretty shape of its buds opens into a flat rosette and they have a good life span whether you use them tall in high vases, or nip them off short and float them. Wonderful scent. A shrub rose, which needs a light prune in autumn and spring.
Eveleyn
A pale many-petalled peachy rose with an overwhelmingly beautiful scent and the look and feel of an old fashioned cabbage rose. A shrub rose, which needs a light prune in autumn and spring.
Golden Celebration
A rich gold yellow as the name suggests, with a strong scent. Country Roses supplied this for Queen Elizabeth's 80th birthday celebrations. A shrub rose, which needs a light prune in autumn and spring.
Constance Spry
This is the quintessentially English rose with cupped pale pink petals, a little like Heritage, with the faint scent of myrrh. It often comes in arching sprays, lovely for tall arrangements, but is not repeat flowering. A shrub rose, which needs a light prune in autumn and spring.
Liliana
This pale peachy rose has many heads and big flowers, yet there is an appealing delicacy to the colours. Stems last a long time and it has a pretty scent. A shrub rose, which needs a light prune in autumn and spring.
Redoute
This is another old French rose which comes on early in the season, before the English pinks, and has a pretty many-petalled shape.
Compassion
This is one of our best spray roses, (along with Penny Lane and Buff Beauty), there are many heads on strong straight stems. The colour is an unusual coppery pink with a hint of apricot and the sprays are spectacular in tall arrangements. A Hybrid Tea rose which need a hard prune during the winter
