What British flowers can you get for Valentine's Day?

Valentine’s Day is a huge moment for flower growers and florists around the world. Around 250 million flower stems are sold globally, and about a third of those are roses grown in places like Colombia, Ecuador and Kenya. February is out of season for locally grown flowers such as roses and, furthermore, there are no commercial cut rose growers in the UK.  

So, have you ever stopped to think about the journey those roses take before they reach us? They’re grown in tropical sunshine, then chilled, air-freighted to The Netherlands, and transported by refrigerated lorries to the UK. By the time a single stem reaches a vase, it can carry a carbon footprint of 1–2kg of CO2e! To put that into perspective, a banana, also grown in the tropics but shipped here, has a footprint of around 80g CO2e.

And it’s not just about carbon. Growing flowers in countries with cheaper land and labour costs often means looser rules around water extraction, land and water pollution, workers’ rights and unregulated un-capped chemical use.

When I learned about this, it led me to start my business using only British-grown flowers. I’ve been growing with my mum since 2016: first on a small plot in Dorset, and now in the New Forest. For our posies, we work with other family growers in the South West and Lincolnshire, so we know exactly where every stem has come from and how it’s been grown.

If you’re thinking of sending flowers this Valentine’s, and you’d like them to be locally grown, we’d love to help. You can order through our website or, even better, start a gift subscription so your loved one knows you’re thinking of them all year round, not just on 14th February.

For Valentine’s week, our posies will include British grown red tulips, scented narcissi, daffodils and red alstroemeria - all grown locally with love.