Choosing british cut flowers
by Sarah Raven
Sarah holding a bunch of home-grown scented narcissi.
Last summer, I made a programme for Gardener’s World about the British cut flower industry. What we asked was why so many of us are concerned that our strawberries and French beans were flown from the other side of the world, but we didn’t seem bothered by the fact that 90% of the flowers we buy are imported, and that’s into a country which has one of the best climates, and the best gardeners and growers in the world. Why oh why are we increasingly demanding not just strawberries twelve months of the year, but roses and peonies as well, which are a challenge to grow here out of season and so cheaper to fly in from the other side of the world. And why don’t we celebrate more the magnificent and delicious flowers which we grow here uniquely well, roses, sweet peas, peonies, dahlias, chrysanthemums and countless bulbs – narcissi, lilies, lily of the valley and tulips - when they’re naturally in season?
At the cut flower, vegetable and fruit wholesale market at Nine Elms in London, this campaign took another step. The New Covent Garden Market Authority arranged an early morning event pulling together British growers with six well known London florist’s – Helen Newman of Moyses Stevens, Kally Ellis of McQueens, Mark Welford and Steven Wicks of Bloomsbury Flowers, Jamie Aston (Jamie Aston flowers) and Alison Trickey of Pollen Nation. Between them, they demonstrated to an audience of florists drawn from all over the country. The question we were all asking in our heads was when a flying Dutchmen arrives outside your shop door twice a week at a civilised hour, with a lorry full of refrigerated flowers, what’s the point of getting up earlier than dawn and going to the extra hassle of sourcing British grown flowers from the wholesale market?
There are plenty of reasons. Apart from supporting your own local growers, in the lorry is a pre-ordained and often narrow selection which the on-the-road trader knows they’re likely to sell. They won’t be unusual things, or flowers which are more delicate with a limited shelf life or bruisability – often the loveliest - as these are high risk. If you want to be inventive in your flower arranging and in the flowers you use, you have to dig deeper. From specialist British growers there are fantastic things available. Up on the stage we had sweet peas, grown by David Guscott (Greenlines Nursery just outside Chichester), massively scented stocks (J Pell and sons), buckets and buckets of alstromerias in all the best deep rich colours (Geaters), huge-headed, garden-style roses (grown by Danae Duthy, Country Roses), the most delicious pink, fluffy peonies, (Tregothnan Estates), great bunches of lilac, (Porters foliage, but all British grown), clovey-scented English garden pinks (Carolyn Whetman), exotic and dignified calla lilies in crimson, deep orange and pure white (Copseys), cymbidium orchids (Preselli orchids) and vast and amazing lilies (Richard Hyde of Hydes Lilies) all available from under one roof. That’s just a few of the flowers available in May. Through the year, different crops will come and go – as they should – but with a month-by-month unceasing supply even through the winter.
It’s not just the incredible range of plants and individual varieties which you’ll get with British grown. As we stood there, there was another very apparent advantage to this home grown clutch - powerful good old fashioned scent. Even in the cold of the market in the early morning, the whole place smelt like a Parisian perfumery. And many of the florists would vouch for the fact that British grown and conditioned, you get a better vase life. With many of the growers delivering three times a week to the market, with stems harvested only the night before, these cut flowers are as fresh as you get.
There is one down side to British grown which I keep being told about by talented and inventive florists and that’s that the supply can be unreliable. Particularly with a field grown crop – by the far the most sustainable and best – the cropping pattern is vulnerable to the vagaries of the British weather. If you’ve designed a wedding around a sea of sweet violets and they fail to come in, it’s time to panic. With an anxious bride expecting something very definite, this could be a killer, but that shouldn’t rule out greater flexibility on other jobs and types of arrangements. Just like going to a food market and deciding what to eat after your shopping trip, rather than before, if you can go with the flow a bit more, you’ll get the best. It’s better to buy what’s looking fantastic on the morning, rather than picking up everything from a pre-ordained list.
I grow my own cut flowers from spring to autumn, but I’ve now vowed to put the extra leg work in when I buy flowers in the winter, aiming to buy locally or at least British grown whenever possible. It will take an extra effort to begin with, but as more of us ask for this, better systems of distribution will evolve and it will become easier to achieve.
At the cut flower, vegetable and fruit wholesale market at Nine Elms in London, this campaign took another step. The New Covent Garden Market Authority arranged an early morning event pulling together British growers with six well known London florist’s – Helen Newman of Moyses Stevens, Kally Ellis of McQueens, Mark Welford and Steven Wicks of Bloomsbury Flowers, Jamie Aston (Jamie Aston flowers) and Alison Trickey of Pollen Nation. Between them, they demonstrated to an audience of florists drawn from all over the country. The question we were all asking in our heads was when a flying Dutchmen arrives outside your shop door twice a week at a civilised hour, with a lorry full of refrigerated flowers, what’s the point of getting up earlier than dawn and going to the extra hassle of sourcing British grown flowers from the wholesale market?
There are plenty of reasons. Apart from supporting your own local growers, in the lorry is a pre-ordained and often narrow selection which the on-the-road trader knows they’re likely to sell. They won’t be unusual things, or flowers which are more delicate with a limited shelf life or bruisability – often the loveliest - as these are high risk. If you want to be inventive in your flower arranging and in the flowers you use, you have to dig deeper. From specialist British growers there are fantastic things available. Up on the stage we had sweet peas, grown by David Guscott (Greenlines Nursery just outside Chichester), massively scented stocks (J Pell and sons), buckets and buckets of alstromerias in all the best deep rich colours (Geaters), huge-headed, garden-style roses (grown by Danae Duthy, Country Roses), the most delicious pink, fluffy peonies, (Tregothnan Estates), great bunches of lilac, (Porters foliage, but all British grown), clovey-scented English garden pinks (Carolyn Whetman), exotic and dignified calla lilies in crimson, deep orange and pure white (Copseys), cymbidium orchids (Preselli orchids) and vast and amazing lilies (Richard Hyde of Hydes Lilies) all available from under one roof. That’s just a few of the flowers available in May. Through the year, different crops will come and go – as they should – but with a month-by-month unceasing supply even through the winter.
It’s not just the incredible range of plants and individual varieties which you’ll get with British grown. As we stood there, there was another very apparent advantage to this home grown clutch - powerful good old fashioned scent. Even in the cold of the market in the early morning, the whole place smelt like a Parisian perfumery. And many of the florists would vouch for the fact that British grown and conditioned, you get a better vase life. With many of the growers delivering three times a week to the market, with stems harvested only the night before, these cut flowers are as fresh as you get.
There is one down side to British grown which I keep being told about by talented and inventive florists and that’s that the supply can be unreliable. Particularly with a field grown crop – by the far the most sustainable and best – the cropping pattern is vulnerable to the vagaries of the British weather. If you’ve designed a wedding around a sea of sweet violets and they fail to come in, it’s time to panic. With an anxious bride expecting something very definite, this could be a killer, but that shouldn’t rule out greater flexibility on other jobs and types of arrangements. Just like going to a food market and deciding what to eat after your shopping trip, rather than before, if you can go with the flow a bit more, you’ll get the best. It’s better to buy what’s looking fantastic on the morning, rather than picking up everything from a pre-ordained list.
I grow my own cut flowers from spring to autumn, but I’ve now vowed to put the extra leg work in when I buy flowers in the winter, aiming to buy locally or at least British grown whenever possible. It will take an extra effort to begin with, but as more of us ask for this, better systems of distribution will evolve and it will become easier to achieve.
