It's an exciting time of year for us on our English farm as we look forward once again to the start of the English rose and herb season.

As a British cut flower grower, the premier grower of cut English garden roses, we are well aware of the recent interest in buying locally grown, seasonal flowers and are delighted to have benefitted from the increased demand.

Buying locally grown flowers when they are in abundance makes perfect sense although there seems to be a misconception in some circles that flowers grown out of season and outside of the country are their poor relations and that flowers flown in from Africa are all bad!

Our farm in Nanyuki, Kenya is a force for good in the area and you may believe, as we do, that we need to support trade in Africa to help break the poverty trap.

Ethically, responsibly, sustainably produced flowers with provenance are what we need to look for in cut flower production, whether they are produced in the UK or overseas.

What about CO2 emissions I hear you ask? Well according to Wikipidia in 2004 (sadly hasn't been updated since) in the UK we used 9.79 metric tons per head per year compared to 0.31 metric tons per head per year in Kenya!