"More and more florists seem to be wanting British stock"

Smith & Munson were one of the farms that Florismart visited on the trip around the British growers this week.

Jo Munson married into her husband Steve’s family business, Smith & Munson, and for the past 25 years she has helped to grow tulips and lilies at the farm in Lincolnshire. The area where the farm is, is known as ‘South Holland’.

British flowers are becoming easier to source for florists because of the Florismart pre-order and Jo is eager to get her flowers to as many as possible. She explains: “More and more florists seem to be wanting British stock and this is good news for us. You will always need flowers from around the world; of course florists want the diversity but where you can, it’s good to buy British.”

So, why should florists buy British if they can? “Because you are supporting your own economy,” explains Jo. “Less air miles are involved and you can get to know your grower easily. I think that there is a misconception sometimes that British growers aren’t as good as the Dutch, for example. But this is simply not true. Yes, we’ve learnt a lot from the Dutch but our techniques are the same, if not better."

From December to May Smith & Munson produce up to 100 different varieties of gorgeous tulips including parrot, fringed and double, and from May to November (sometimes December, depending on the season) you can buy a range of varieties of Smith & Munson lilies.

Starting with tulips, Jo explains how they are grown: “Bulbs are bought from Dutch bulb suppliers and we always use the same companies as we need good reliable stocks. So bulbs start arriving in October and continue throughout the season. All bulbs are planted onto spikes in plastic trays for growing, then filled with water. They are then put into cold storage (winter to them) and then roughly three weeks later brought into the warm glasshouse (spring) – that’s is why it’s called forcing. This continues right through the season. From bringing into the glasshouse, it takes 3 -4 weeks before cropping starts. Our glass is heated with bio-mass boilers.

“Lilies are very different and much slower growing compared to tulips, and we cannot get so many rounds through our glasshouses but we have extra glass that we use for lilies. We start planting in February, the first crop should be ready in May. We grow just over 80 varieties of Orientals, OT’s, Roselilies, and LA Asiatic.”

Source: Florismart