Growing flowers is a lifestyle

CoirProducts.co.uk featured grower this week is Ben Cross (@Alstroemeriaben). Ben is a 4th generation flower grower at Crosslands Flower Nursery, which is an independent family business situated in West Sussex near Arundel. In this blog post, Ben shares with us how he became a full time grower, having done marine biology for a while. Ben also talks about what he loves to grow, and shares some of the most valuable lessons he has learnt. 

Speaking about their flower nursery, Ben says, “it all started in 1936 when my great grandparents were part of the Land Settlement Association (LSA) which was a government scheme to get the country back up and running after the great depression of the 1930s. I actually did Marine Biology for over 10 years and wanted to then come back to the flower nursery in 2011.” As well as being a full time grower, Ben has also been running the British Flowers Rock campaign since 2014 spreading awareness that more needs to be done for UK flower growers.

 On what he loves to grow, Ben says, “obviously it has to be our Alstroemeria! I have 2 favourite varieties. ‘Dana’ is my favourite variety to grow as it thrives all year round and is a good producer with low maintenance. ‘Odessa’ is my favourite variety to look at with its awesome colour combo of white and pink with green flecks on the petals”.