The dahlia's are still flowering on our English farm but they are slowing down now. They are so beautiful in all their stages of growth don't you agree?

Our English farm is looking splendid and although the shorter days in the lead up to autumn mean that our yield of scented garden roses is starting to slow down we're still picking lots of fresh roses and wonderful foliage and herbs. This weeks best selling bouquet has freshly harvested pink and white snowberries included in it and we've started picking our seasonal red rose hips which we're currently designing into our range.

So what else is happening on the farm?

Well, all of the chick's and duck's born this summer are almost fully grown now. There are lots of small birds feasting on the rubrifolia hips and the blackberries, which we no longer pick for bouquets as they have become soft.

The Bees from the hives are making good use of the open sedum, which we are picking for bouquets, and some late summer flowers on the rose hips.

Around the open fields on our farm we have planted Bee strips consisting of wild flowers which are now teeming with Bees - a truly spectacular sight.

I'm delighted to report that our farm manager has also been harvesting potatoes, sweet corn and two very large pumpkins from one of our empty beds which he's made excellent use of before the bed is planted up with next years herbs!

A little update from Rob, our farm manager this week....

The rose hips are flowering and are really quite impressive. They are crawling with bees which we're delighted about.

The blackberry is in full flower and is also full of bees. It looks as though we'll get a great crop this year, starting the week after next with the green ones that we love to include in our bouquets.

We are now through the first flush of scented garden roses and are now in a bit of a dip but it looks as though the roses will be back in abundance much sooner than anticipated owning to a fabulous run of great weather this year and to some ver clever management of the crop by Rob.

Just thought I'd add some photos after yesterday's post about the newly hatched chicks and ducklings on our farm....Awww!

I'm delighted to announce that the wild duck that took up residence in our sage a couple of weeks ago is now the proud Mother to 20 ducklings.

The new ducklings have now joined the 20 chicks, that hatched a couple of weeks ago, the Indian Runner ducks, the bee's and last but not least, our farm manager's dog Rosie!

I'm also delighted to report that our first roses of the season are about to reach the perfect pick stage. It's a slow start but earlier than last year and Big Purple, the beautiful scented garden rose, will be the very first rose we pick this year in England.

Thought you might like to see the actual trophy that we were awarded for 'Cut Flower Grower of the Year 2009' at the Grower of the Year Awards last week. It's shiny and silver and engraved with The Real Flower Company's name.

Thank you to all of our Realflower people; from the planting of the bushes all the way through to the wonderful floristry, well done everyone!

A Rosier Life Trust was set up to support the local Burguret community around our farm in Kenya with programes including school feeding, environment conservation initiatives, capital projects and education tours.
With food scarcity and high food inflation prices caused by the post election violence that occurred in Kenya over a year ago A Rosier Life Trust's primary aim at the end of 2008 was to ensure availability and provision of food for the children at the local schools. Without the support offered by the Trust's contributors the children would have gone hungry.

In September last year The Real Flower Company donated funds to the Trust to purchase two 2300 litre water tanks. One water tank was delivered to Burgaret Primary School and the other to Tigithi Primary School. The tanks will mean that children will not have to collect and carry water into school each day to enable their lunch to be prepared.

We are delighted to announce that we have won the award for 'Cut Flower of the Year 2009' at the Grower of the Year awards ceremony that was held last night.
The prestigious black tie awards dinner, otherwise known as the 'oscars of the horticultural world' was held in London at the The Royal Lancaster Hotel and the great and the good of the horticultural and agricultural worlds were out in force.

The Grower of the Year Awards are organized by Horticultural Week and Grower Magazine and celebrate the best examples of business excellence,technical expertise, innovation and personal achievement within UK production horticulture.

Thank you so much to all our customers who have supported us and helped us to spread the word about our very special cut scented garden roses - this is an achievement which we'd like to share with you!

We're currently very busy pruning about 20,000 rose bushes at the moment along with another 4000 roses that we grow for their hips and foliage.
Pruning can start now until the middle to end of March.
This is also a good time to feed your roses with well rotten manure which can be applied as a top dressing or mulch - the roses love it.
Our herbs have taken a knock with the hard frosts so we are busy removing any die back and I'll also be doing this in the garden. If you need to replace any dead herbs it might be a good idea to wait until the chance of frost decreases towards the middle to end of April.

Fairtrade fortnight launches today and one has to applaud the good work that has been done by this organisation particularly in getting the supermarkets onboard and for ensuring that they pay fair prices.

Buyers for large companies wield an extraordinary amount of power over suppliers. They are highly trained negotiators and I speak from experience as I worked in various senior buying roles in the fashion industry for many years. I've lost count of the number of courses I've attended over the years to finely hone my negotiating skills!
I have witnessed some shoddy treatment of suppliers during the course of my career but I always viewed my relationships with suppliers as partnerships and it was always very important to me to ensure that the supplier was left with a good working margin and a fair deal (win, win as they called it on the courses!). For me it was really important to create a sustainable relationship with my suppliers and fairness is something I value highly.

Trading fairly is at the very heart of our business. Owning our own farms means that there is a short journey from our farms to our customers and, on our Kenyan farm, we are Gold members of the Kenya Flower Council and adhere to strict rules governing pay, health and safety, staff welfare etc.
Provenance is so important in everything we buy, whether it's clothing, chocolate, fruit or flowers. Knowing that it's been produced responsibly, ethically and sustainably regardless of whether it's produced in the UK or overseas is the key.

Gladys in the packing shed on our Kenyan farm.

We finally stopped cutting roses on our Hampshire farm in November this year (or last year as it's now 2009!). We continue to cut many varieties of foliage and herbs throughout the Winter though.

Here are a few photographs of the last roses worth cutting along with some Wintery shots of our herb and foliage beds.