I am a trained florist and for a long while it has bothered me that I cannot get the flowers that I love. I want them to be local garden flowers that have not been drenched in pesticides and have lost their youth and beauty, having travelled the four corners of the world to reach our doorstep.
In our walled garden we have an integrated pest management system(IPM). Our IPM uses a range of complementary methods based upon prevention, observation and intervention. For example, on our roses we use garlic spray. We use beneficial predators (nematodes) and yellow sticky traps along with companion planting. Using pesticides would be our last resort.
Our compost is peat free. We supplement our mulch with leaf mould fallen from the ancient trees around the walled garden.
Second Article
Date Published:
18 April 2008
Article Author:
Sheherazade Goldsmith
Source:
Daily Mail
Two thirds of Colombian floriculture labourers suffer from work-related health problems, such as impaired vision, still births and respiratory and neurological problems.
First Article
Date Published:
13 April 2008
Article Author:
Carolyn Fry
Source:
Guardian
Over two-thirds of flowers on sale in Britain come from abroad. The country we import most from is Holland, with large quantities also coming from Kenya, Colombia and Israel. But you might well find proteas from South Africa, anthuriums from the Caribbean, carnations from Morocco and roses from India in a bouquet from your local florist. Flowers are no different from food crops in that they require energy to grow and also rack up carbon footprints as they travel from their point of production to our living rooms.
Environmentalists are concerned that the rapid expansion of the flower industry around Kenya’s Lake Naivasha is draining the land of precious water and polluting the environment with pesticides. Meanwhile, the World Health organization rated more than a third of toxic chemicals in use on some Colombian flowers farms in 2005 as "extremely" or "highly" toxic.