Day 1: Quality Control and the effect of weather on your Valentine’s Kenyan roses
"PJ Dave is an amazing farm growing your Rhodos roses around an hour’s drive south of Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya, the first of many farms we’re visiting. Steve began arranging pre-orders with Ananth, the general sales manager, while we (Helen, Savannah and Katie) had a tour to see exactly how the Rhodos roses are grown." Read more here.
Day 2: Unique roses grown at the Oserian Farm and the Hippo Hotel
"Our first stop was the Oserian Farm, the oldest rose farm in Kenya. They grow 10 million stems of flowers every week made up of mainly roses, then carnations, then a small percentage of varieties such as statice, gyp, sunflowers and a range of greenery. Chris, the operations manager, spared us some time at this manically busy time of year, to explain how the farm works, along with their ethics.
The Oserian Farm is unique in the respect that it uses the resource of geothermal wells located in their land. This means that they generate all their own electricity and CO2. The farm’s use of CO2 means that they can grow beautiful large headed roses but at a quicker rate than usual because of the lower altitude, which means they don’t cost the earth! It’s all a bit complicated but basically the higher up you grow roses, the larger their heads, but the slower they grow. As a result they grow some pretty special roses including Queen of Africa, Magic Avalanche and Sorbet Avalanche." Read more here.
Day 3: State of the art farms and how your veronica, scabious and delphiniums also come from Kenya
"We woke up overlooking the lake of Naivasha with Hippos under our wooden tents, but unfortunately we were a woman down with food poisoning. A tip for Africa, it may have beautiful views, but avoid the salads!
So our team of 4 became 3, and we headed off first to FleurAfrica to see perhaps one of the most modern farms in Kenya. FleurAfrica is owned by a Colombian grower, and you could see the influence. Unlike other farms in Kenya, which are a bit more basic, this farm was different. Although it was only a few years old, it was seriously state of the art. From the outside it had a huge glass front, which looked as impressive as the farms in Holland. It had an automated pulley system getting the flowers from the greenhouses to the packhouse for grading quickly, thus ensuring less time left in the sun. The cooling units were powerful beasts. In the packhouse they sorted by headsize as priority, and every stem was stripped and dipped in an anti-botrytis solution, which is very Colombian. This efficiency means very competitive pricing and high quality." Read more here.
Day 4: Your Freedom roses, how cows can help them grow and a Rhino sighting
"Today we went on a Freedom fact finding mission, to see exactly how your Freedom are grown from the Ayana farm. The farm is situated an hour’s drive from Nakuru, at an altitude of 2600 meters, making it the second highest rose farm in Kenya. The countryside around it is stunning – a lot greener than you might think for Kenya!
Back to a full team of four, we met Girish, CEO and Director of the Fontana Group that the Ayana farm is part of, as well as Akina and Alisha. We started our tour of the huge farm (120 hectares!!) at the grading machines – the first electrical dutch style machines of this sort we’ve seen in Kenya. The grading machines make sorting the roses into the correct stem length and head size super easy and efficient – you’ll see a substantial improvement in the quality of grading this Valentine’s Day compared to last as this is the first Valentine’s Girish has had the machines." Read more here.
Day 5: Lady Killer roses, girl power and sleeping on the equator
"After a beautiful three and a half hour drive from Nakuru we arrived at Tambuzi farm, a unique Kenyan farm specialising in garden scented roses. Tim and Maggie Hobbs have been growing roses there for over 20 years, having converted the farm from producing dairy and beef to original scented roses. The Real Flower Company promote and sell the roses in the UK – a name you might have heard of before.
The farm is situated at the foot of Mount Kenya, only a few miles away from the equator, making its altitude perfect for growing large headed garden roses. It’s the only farm in Kenya to produce the varieties it does, including David Austin, and Tambuzi garden, scented and spray."
Day 6: Exploring equator farms and gorgeous new varieties of roses
"We met Ivan Freeman, who is extremely experienced and has been growing roses in this area of Kenya since 1998. He runs the Uhuru farm but at the moment all their gorgeous roses end up in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Australia. Florismart is going to change that so keep a look out for Uhuru varieties on the webshop in the coming months.
Ivan grows 60 varieties of roses, and is hoping to launch his own range of scented garden roses later this year. The roses will have at least seven days vase life – in Ivan’s words: think ‘Japanese David Austin’. His core range is high quality roses with large heads and it’s safe to say we think you will love what he has on offer, including a variety called ‘Suplesse’. It is a seductive rose with a very pale pink hue, first bred at Alani Gardens. We think they are perfect for weddings." Read more here.
“Kenya was the trip of a lifetime!”
"This trip has been the most amazing experience. Savannah rang me on the 23rd of December last year to tell me that I’d won the experience of a lifetime. I was serving a customer in the shop at the time, handtied in one hand, phone in the other; I just couldn’t believe it. After the news had sunk in, I was a little apprehensive, after all it’s a long way to go with people you don’t know. But as soon as I met Steve, Savannah and Katie I knew it would be all ok.
Kenya is beautiful and a lot greener then you might think. It was a massive culture change for me but everyone we met was so lovely and accomodating. Before this trip, I knew some roses came from Kenya, but I had no idea of the extent of it, as well as other flowers such as Hypericum, Gypsophila and Scabious. I also didn’t realise that David Austin Roses come all the way from Kenya." Read more here.