British Flowers Week in June celebrates the beauty and variety of British cut flowers, foliage and plants, as well as the florists, growers and wholesalers who make it all possible.
Chiswick House Gardens, the 65 acre estate developed by the 3rd earl of Burlington and eighteenth century landscape gardener William Kent, will be supplying heritage plants: pre-1850 varieties of pelargonium, scented stocks from heritage seed supplier Thomas Etty and the strongly scented pink Jacques Cartier roses brought over from the Empress Josephine’s gardens in the 1820s by Louis Kennedy, which adorn the Italian Garden.
Gardeners Rosy and Rob Hardy have become regulars at Chiswick Flower market. They have won 24 gold medals at the Chelsea Flower Show. This year the great and good of the flower world came to them, including Gardeners World presenter Adam Frost and BBC Breakfast presenter Mike Bushell. The Hardys retired from Chelsea this year and created their Chelsea garden at their nursery in Hampshire instead. They’ll be bringing the herbaceous perennials for which they have become famous to the Chiswick Flower Market in June, including top sellers Geum ‘Totally Tangerine’, Thalictrum ‘Chantilly Lace’ and Penstemon ‘Rich Ruby’.
British growers struggle to compete with Dutch growers, where horticulture is the national industry. The UK doesn’t cultivate flowers in anything like the same volume and supply is therefore less reliable. Traders such as Rose Lily Flowers and Isabella florist buy mainly from continental Europe but buy English where the opportunity arises. Joe Brown from Rose Lily Flowers buy from one of the biggest UK flower growers, Smith & Munson and is hoping to sell English Lillies, Scabious, Larkspur, Delphiniums and Peonies at the June market. Stephen Hudson from Isabella florist is planning on bringing Chrysanthemums and Irises, which he gets from a greenhouse at Nazeing in Essex.
To read the complete article, go to www.london-post.co.uk.