Petal power! Why Brit blooms are back
Ahead of British Flowers Week, Talib Choudhry meets the florists bringing back the nation’s once thriving home-grown industry
Monday sees the start of British Flowers Week, a nationwide celebration of home-grown blooms, which shines a spotlight on UK cut-flower growers and the florists who turn their crops into bouquets.
British Flowers Week was started in 2013 by the team that runs London’s New Covent Garden flower market. Dozens of events, from open gardens and floral workshops to pop-up shops and summer fairs, are listed in full at britishflowersweek.com.
“We have been trading in British-grown flowers and foliage for centuries,” says Helen Evans, director of business development at New Covent Garden. “Just like with food, people are increasingly requesting more local flowers to celebrate the seasons and support their growers. British flowers have a natural charm and just-picked freshness that make them a favourite with florists.”
Although there is blooming interest in British flowers, the UK industry has been hit by efficiently grown imports and the demand for year-round variety; only 10 per cent of the flowers sold in the UK are grown here.
“Up until the 1970s, the only flowers you saw came from flower farmers in Britain,” adds Evans. “Today, most of the flowers in your high-street flower shop will have been grown by large-scale commercial growers and routed through the Dutch auctions. We’re aiming to change this.”
Encouragingly, there are signs of green shoots in the industry, with growing numbers of florists turning their hand to growing blooms. Former fashion designer Juliet Glaves decided to try her hand at it 10 years ago, after making a documentary for the BBC about the history of the British cut-flower industry. “What was once a thriving market had become a shadow of its former glory within the space of just 30 years,” says Glaves. “It seemed especially sad because our climate is perfect for flower-growing.” The
DON’T MISS...
... the British flowering calendar, inside the ‘Gardening’ section of tomorrow’s Daily Telegraph experience planted the seed for a commercial venture, and Glaves persuaded her husband to buy a pig farm in Shropshire to grow their own flowers. It wasn’t a total leap into the unknown; her uncle was a nurseryman and her aunt a florist, so the way of life was familiar and Glaves decided to follow their lead of both harvesting and arranging flowers.
Glaves started selling her blooms at farmers’ markets in 2008, “to see if anyone was even remotely interested and fortunately they got it”. Her abundant, wild-looking floral displays were a success, and the couple now raise more than 200 varieties of plants, including cottage garden favourites such as hollyhocks, lupins and delphiniums, which can be difficult to buy from mainstream florists.
“It’s very seasonal, like any English garden,” says Glaves. “Our most abundant time is from mid-june to mid-october, but we also have spring flowers and early woodland flowers in winter. Growing seasonally is lovely: you’re in tune with the natural rhythms of the year.”
Heather Gorringe, founder of the Great British Florist, grows flowers on a Hertfordshire farm and has mounted a social media campaign with the hashtag #grownnotflown.
“Using British blooms helps reduce flower miles and increases the diversity of the countryside,” says Gorringe. “More fields of British-grown flowers are good for humans, bees, birds, bugs and butterflies alike. We are the best gardeners in the world and can grow small plots of more unusual varieties. British flowers are usually more scented and people love that. We are currently in the middle of sweet william season, which is just breathtaking. For me, their smell is the scent of Great Britain.”
Gorringe strives to ensure that every Great British Florist bouquet includes as many Uk-grown flowers as possible; the exact number of stems is stamped on the wrapping.
Bigger companies are pushing patriotic petals, too. The peonies in Bloom & Wild’s collection, for example, are all sourced from farmers in the UK. The company offers an innovative service, sending design-led flowers through the post. Flowers are cut while still in bud and packed in the letterbox-thin packaging.
“In the warmer months, we source peonies, stocks and other flowers from British growers to get brilliant product and support UK businesses,” explains Sara Gordon, Bloom & Wild’s creative director. “British peony farms have the perfect soil to grow our customers’ favourite variety, Sarah Bernhardt, which is pale pink and lightly scented.”
For Glaves, however, there is nothing better than flowers grown organically. “This is a way of life now and we live and breathe flowers,” she says. “There is no comparison between forced, farmed flowers and naturally grown ones, which are robust and beautifully imperfect.”