We can save British flowers

How easy is it to establish that what appear to be traditional British flowers such as those you name have been grown in the UK? All these ‘British’ flowers are imported in large quantities.

Sweet Williams and peonies are my favourite flowers, especially Sweet Williams. I certainly buy them if I see them.

My son was at the Malvern Show, on Friday I think. He kept bumping into Princess Anne,

If you buy flowers in the supermarket they do say where they are grown, but it is harder with florists I know, because they buy from wholesale and don’t always know themselves. Some types of flowers are grown exclusively in the UK because they like our climate and aren’t commercially viable for the (primarily Dutch and Kenyan) mass growers. Buying seasonally means you have more chance of getting a British grown flower too.

Contacting Flowers from the Farm would be a good starting point to find out how to buy home-grown flowers.

Those flowers are absolutely beautiful Casdon. My favourite type of flower display. ?

Thank you for starting this topic Casdon. It’s a subject close to my historical heart.

I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s in an area where horticulture under glass was a major industry. Many of my forebears were florists in the sense of growing flowers and plants. The industry there was all gone by the 1980s with many jobs lost.

How did Holland become the centre for the flower industry, growing and distribution? The Dutch government’s investment and subsidy programme combined with British supermarkets pushing prices down lead to where we are now.

This article is nine years old but explains what happened.
bjrichardsflowers.co.uk/news/the-fall-rise-of-the-british-flower-industry

Check out flower farms close to where you live. A lot of them do weddings etc., and mail order.

Sorry, chestnut. Just spotted your post.

Do you watch gardeners world? I've noticed that quite a few people set up their own collections precisely because of what you have mentioned Casdon. I imagine you have to have plenty of time and patience though (and space!)

the Dutch took over horticulture because they discovered they had large reserves of gas under the country. This is well before offshore oil in the North Sea was available. They offered growers cheap natural gas, when all our gas was still made from coal. It was a time when they were also actively reclaiming large areas of land from the sea so gas pipelines went in to this new land with all the other services.

You can buy British home grown flowers and plants at Waitrose Florist. www.flowers from the farm.co.uk have a list of British flower growers on their website so you can look up local supplies.

For Mothering Sunday dd sent a box of beautiful flowers from St. Martin’s, The Isles of Scilly. I had to arrange them but they were gorgeous and I absolutely love The Isles of Scilly.

M0nica

the Dutch took over horticulture because they discovered they had large reserves of gas under the country. This is well before offshore oil in the North Sea was available. They offered growers cheap natural gas, when all our gas was still made from coal. It was a time when they were also actively reclaiming large areas of land from the sea so gas pipelines went in to this new land with all the other services.

Times have moved on since then though Monica, and Flowers from the Farm specialise in outdoor grown flowers in season rather than hothouse flowers. The point I was trying to make is that if we don’t buy British grown flowers in season now, in future we won’t be able to because they will disappear from the market. There is an issue in that the wholesalers tend to be Dutch managed, so it’s hard for our suppliers to get their flowers sold through wholesalers, so we need to make an effort to buy directly, or at least check they are British suppliers.

My dad used to grow Sweet Williams (and he was called William ) so I’ve always loved them. The ones you buy in shops have almost no scent, though. To me, there’s no point in a sweet William without the scent.

M&S seem to sell quite a lot of British grown flowers in the summer months. I like their gaudy UK gladioli, which are excellent value for money, generally £4 and they last for ages.

Commercial daffodils are grown in this area, although I do wonder about a market that means there must be greater profit in growing flowers on prime farmland instead of food crops ? and there are a number of PYO flower farms, with gladioli, tulips and sunflowers, amongst others.

British flower growers are suffering with lack of staff post Brexit.

vegansrock

British flower growers are suffering with lack of staff post Brexit.

That’s certainly true for larger scale commercial growers vegansrock, however a lot of the contributors to Flowers on the Farm are true artisan growers, they do it all themselves.

The Malvern show looked lovely, I’ll try and go next year.
I grow Sweet Williams, Asters and Stocks from seed. Also I’ve had some success growing perennial Stocks, although they only last a few years before becoming woody, but the seeds are easy to germinate.