News
MayIt‘s been a busier month than usual here, first with my wedding and then with the wedding of our devon salesman andrew. Hopefully some pictures to follow! but also on the nursery. May is when everything is in full swing here. Sales have been going better than ever and even with the increased area of stocks we‘ve managed to run out for a few days. More are on the way though along with the snapdragons. The astrantia will be through its first flush within the week but will be back in a month or so. The solidagos, phloxs, astilbes etc have all been enjoying the sun today and are looking very healthy. We‘ve also been busy planting further crops like the hybrid delphs, hybris sweet williams, chrysanths and a new crop for us this year, blooms! very exciting!!
It‘s not all about what we grow though, we‘ve improved our links with other growers around the country and have a huge range of seasonal flowers to look forward to. Now really is the time to buy local and support all the people trying to get our own economy going again!
April
With mothers day out of the way it‘s time to focus on the nursery here at bj richards. Sales for mothers day seemed to be the best for many years for both wholeslers and florists giving us all hope that finally the tide is turning and there is a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. For us the late mothers day ment that we could get our first stocks ino the shops although our snapdragons arrived just a few days too late. It‘s always everyone‘s favourite time of year here, the first stocks seems to lift the gloom of winter and signal the start of summer, especially on a warm windless day when you can smell the scent of the flowers long before you get to the greenhouse! Luckily we‘ve had a few warm days already which are bringing on all the other summer flowers.
February
Valentines is always a nervy time and the night before the roses arrive is always a sleepless night. But our growers didn‘t let us down and a record number of red roses past through our wholesale arm as we proved you can have top quality roses at the lowest possible price. On the nursery replanting continues and a little house rotation too as we take alstroemaria out of one house replacing it with the summer crops and replanting new varieties of alstroe in the summer flower house.
Work also starts on the gardens now in preperation of another year of charity open days and private visits, the first of which we are already taking bookings for. If you‘re a gardening club and would like to visit the gardens please check the ‘gardens’ page for booking info.
January
Usually a quiet time here at highcroft. The alstroemaria harvest is at its slowest. Much of our time is spent preparing houses for the summers crops. Planting continues with our stocks & snapdragons going in joined by a fresh crop of statice. On the sales side we‘re preparing for valentines, we‘re locked in negotiations with our suppliers and our prices are being formulated, this year the signs are good and we hope to offer our customers the best roses and the best prices!
December
The big freeze has taken hold with much snow forecast. We will as always endeavor to reach all our customers one way or another! here on the nursery the first stock & snapdragon plants have arrived and are due to be planted today, they should be ready for harvest by april.
August 13th
It‘s another garden open day this weekend, the first one was a bit of a disappointment due to the weather but the forecast for sunday is very good so we‘re hoping for a good turn out this time. We‘re still flat out on the nursery, all of the regular summer flowers are still in full flow and a new one is just starting. Chrysanthemums are something we used to grow on a large scale but trends change with time. Now they are beginning to come back into fashion and our first house is just starting to flower.
June 9th
Today saw the launch of our weekly ‘local flower list’. We have been promoting the best flowers the region produces for several years now but the desire for locally produced flowers from the consumer has rocketed this year, so much so that we can barely keep up with it. But from today we are sending participating shops a full list of flowers they can expect for the coming week complete with news direct from the growers. When i fist started buying 20 years ago we were getting our roses from the isle of man, our freesia from guernsey and our ayr & blooms from somerset. All of those businesses no longer exist, a consequence of cheap foreign imports and the dominance of the flower market by holland. Now flowers produced in this country count for less than 10% of those used. 10 years ago it was 20% and 20 years ago it was 45%. We may never get things back to where they once were but we have at least got to try!
Ask your local florist if they stock english flowers.
May 28th
It’s been another busy week here. The chrysanthemums finally arrived so they’ve been planted and the hot weather has brought on the summer crops, we started picking astrantia yesterday.
But the big news has been away from here up in london at the chelsea flower show. We were proud to sponsor miss catherine date who’s stunning floral display was awarded the silver-gilt grenfell in the Florist of the year show.
Catherine was not the only one of our customers to feature in the show, cornwall’s caroline crabb also qualified and achieved the silver grenfell. Congratulations to them both!
May 20th
There‘s enough happening here at the moment to update the news daily, if only we had the time!! the summer flowers are finally starting to flower now, as well as our stocks & snaps we now have scabious, pinks, cornflower, lupins & sweet williams. Much much more will be here soon with our new link up with some of the best growers in the country. Amid all the picking we‘re also still planting. The first of this years chrysanthemums should already be in the ground so that is on the long list of must do‘s this week. Today has also seen the launch of highcroft gardens new plant catalogue to flower shops across the region. The garden department (dad) has produced a superb range of quality plants from the ever popular gardens, if you live in devon or cornwall pop into your local florist to see if they stock them.
April 8th
It finally looks like spring has arrived! the sun is shining on us here in cornwall and the temperatures are feeling a lot warmer. April has also seen the start of our stocks which are looking beautiful. Our snapdragons are not far away from being ready too. We have also been visited by the bbc again, this time radio 4’s farming today who have been running a feature on ‘locally grown flowers’, a subject close to our heart. You can here the interview with barry on the bbc iplayer for the next seven days.
www.bbc.co.uk/farmingtoday
March
It finally looks like the horrendous winter, one of the coldest for 30 years, is behind us. The cold temperatures have caused much concern and considerable costs as we try to keep this years early crops on track. Fortunately we have been graced with almost summer like weather here this week with much sunshine helping the plants catch up on lost growth. The first stocks are now starting to run and show colour and should hit the local shops by the end of the month. Mothers day was very good this year providing a huge relief for all concerned. An extra bonus for us was the success of our webshop with many customers enjoying the vast range of flowers, plants and sundries at great prices. We‘d like to thank all the customers who have helped get this venture up and running and hope we can continue to grow hand in hand. We have also used this good weather to give the gardens a spring clean in preparation for the coming summer. If you are a gardening club and would like a group visit there are still some dates available this august so please feel free to get into touch. We have also been busy on the nursery today adding to our range of summer flowers by planting red & white astrantia and re-housing our achillea and rudbeckia. It‘s great to be working outdoors again!
February
With valentines out of the way we have just 4 weeks until mothers day this year. On the nursery we are busy steam sterilizing more houses in preparation for this years crops. With two houses already planted we need to have the third completed before mothers day week. The short winter days seem very long at the moment!!
January 2010.
We have been kicking of the year recovering from christmas and planting some of this years crops. First into the ground are the stocks and snapdragons. By the end of the month we should be planting new season statice. All this whilst preparing for valentines day on the wholesale side.
December 2009.
It‘s been a hectic few months here at highcroft hence the lack of time to update the news. So what‘s been keeping us so busy? well, after a very successful summer in the gardens we‘ve had to cram several months tidying for the winter and preparation for the spring into a few weeks because of dads open heart operation, which i‘m glad to say was also very successful. We have also been busy planning the crop schedules and plantings for next year. After a fantastic year of sales with locally grown flowers we will be extending our range once more and extending the seasons too. In fact the first stocks are being planted as I type!
We also have some big news on the wholesale side of the business. This week we launched our flower webshop. Through this customers have real time access to every type of flower available on the dutch flower auctions as well as pot plans, holland‘s leading pre made bouquet company and a vast range of sundries and ceramic & glass ware. Exciting times ahead here at bj richards as we try to promote the very best of british flowers with the best range the rest of the world has to offer!