Home grown: how exotic blooms can be guilt-free
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PostedFebruary 23, 2020
An overflowing vase of unseasonably fiery flowers is the perfect antidote to winter. But if you worry about how far imported blooms have travelled, and at what cost to the environment, brightening up your room needn’t be a guilty pleasure: a cut flower producer on the south coast may have the answer. Alstroemeria ‘Bianca’. Photograph: Mimi Connolly/The Guardian Ben Cross grows alstroemerias all year round in West Sussex. Even in midwinter, long beds of these tropical-looking flowers, native to South America and commonly known as Peruvian lilies, rise up defiantly in the energy-efficient greenhouses at Crosslands Flower Nursery, where they are picked to supply British flower markets all through the seasons. “From Christmas to February, we harvest three times a week,” says Cross. “In March, the plants will go berserk: from then to Christmas we harvest seven days a week, at least 1,000 bunches a day.” Alstroemeria ‘Gold’. Photograph: Mimi Connolly/The Guardian His alstroemerias look as exotic as hothouse orchids: trumpeting blooms with speckled and tiger-striped throats. They can be near-white or baby pink, but are most recognisable in the hot tangerine, gold and ruby-red shades that are ever-present on flower stands. They are ubiquitous because alstroemerias make excellent cut flowers; the sturdy stems won’t snap as you put them in a vase or flop after a few days, and each is topped with a spray of six flowers or more, often lasting two to three weeks in a vase. Alstroemerias in the packing shed ready to be sorted and trimmed. Photograph: Mimi Connolly/The Guardian They aren’t all that hardy, though. Alstroemerias need shelter to flower all year round. The plants grown at Crosslands are hybrids created for their flowers, but probably contain some genes from hardier species such as A. ligtu and A. aurea . These originate from the Andes, where conditions are cool and dry; similar to a British greenhouse for much of the year. “Where we are, sandwiched between the English Channel and the South Downs, we have the perfect growing conditions: the perfect light, the perfect warmth,” says Cross. The greenhouse is kept at 13C […]
