Science into practice: New opportunities for cut flowers

Despite this our own production of cut flowers is still limited and a lack of know-how was identified as holding back expansion and enterprise.

The Cut Flower Centre was established at Kirton in 2007 to address this and moved to nearby Rookery Farm in 2009. HDC project BOF/PC 268 covers this work at the centre.

After initial work, 13 flower types have now been discounted as holding little potential for UK growers due to a range of problems from vase life to unpleasant smell and some are just uneconomic. Some, when better varieties become available, may have potential, including Monte Casino type Aster, Ageratum and Amaranthus.

Seven crops were identified as having definite promise for further exploitation — Delphinium, larkspur, Sedum, ornamental Brassica, annual Dianthus, Phlox and German China asters. Ongoing trials will provide even more data but some of the headlines from the full report so far could help growers considering these crops.

For ornamental brassicas the crop needs to be direct drilled and grown cheaply outdoors from an early planting to ensure that the stems reach the specified length. Annual Dianthus demonstrated a clear potential with tunnel-raised stems consistently longer and heavier than outdoor grown. Vase life is good too. For Phlox there have been mixed results but variety trials have judged Sugar Missey top for flower production and stem length.

Sedum is great as a cut flower because it lasts well in vase, but it needs space, only crops for a month and colour is restricted to pink.