Join us for a ‘British Flowers Rock!’ tour of a fully operational 4^th generation family run flower nursery, from planting & maintaining the alstroemeria, to harvesting, processing, packing. And also seeing how the glasshouses are heated and the flowers are stored and watered.

As well as learning about the history of the nursery, guests will learn the big differences between sourcing homegrown blooms compared to imported flowers.

Itinerary:

10:00  – Meet and introductions.

10:05  – Tour commences

11.30 – Tour finishes

Fresh bunches of flowers will be for sale afterwards at just £3 a bunch (CASH ONLY)

There is ample parking available on site.

Please note that no food or drink is provided on this tour but the Guild invite you to bring a packed lunch or to meet at the Holly Tree Pub for lunch at Noon (more details to follow).

As you are visiting in a press capacity, we ask attendees to share content gained from your visit to Crosslands Flower Nursery, by means of photographs, blog, social media posts (reels etc), podcasts, articles etc.  Please tag Crosslands along with @gdnmediaguild to help promote them and as a thank you for the generosity of being able to visit.

If you write about your visit for newspapers or magazines, photograph it or broadcast about it via TV/radio’, let us know when your work is published, and we’ll share the news.

 Crosslands Flower Nursery – Ben Cross & Team

Ben is an award winning 4th generation grower at Crosslands Flower Nursery which was established in 1936 in West Sussex and is one of the last flower nurseries in the UK producing cut flowers in a full colour range all year-round.

Ben’s British Alstroemeria is a very sustainable crop. His flowers are not sprayed with any chemicals after being harvested and go into recyclable, reusable boxes and arrive with customers the next day. No soil cooling techniques are used to force production and some flower beds are over 20 years old, still producing premium quality stems. Under 5% of the crop is replanted a year so sterilizing the soil is kept to a minimum.

The British Alstroemeria is known as a ‘Cool Crop’ and a ‘Dry Crop’ so doesn’t take much heat input or watering. Optimum heat at night through the winter is just 13°C via a biomass boiler and the crop is watered for just 20 minutes once a month in the winter and just 20 minutes once every 10 days in the summer unlike flowers grown in warmer countries that use a lot more water resource.

When Ben’s flowers have been picked they don’t go into big freezers, the cooling storage system at Crosslands is usually turned off between November and March. When the flowers need to be stored in warmer weather they’re only chilled at about 6°C instead of 0.5°C like most imported flowers. They are only stored for a couple of days before they are with the customers. They are a lot fresher than flowers that go all around the world. Most importantly all the stems are harvested at a ‘ripe’ big fat bud stage giving a bigger more vibrant flower unlike the imports that are harvested too tight in bud just so that more can be transported in boats and planes.

Ben also only employs local people and more importantly does apprenticeship schemes with local horticultural colleges and goes into floristry colleges to give his ‘British Flowers Rock’ Talks

Next to being a fulltime grower, Ben is an avid campaigner for British Flowers and takes any opportunity he can to spread the word that British Flowers Rock!

Ben won the Grower Award in 2019 and 2022! And won the Gold Sussex Environmental award in 2020 and a RHS Chelsea Gold Medal in 2024.

Ben donated his blooms to St Richards Hospital in Chichester, Surrey Hospital and West Sussex care homes during the COVID 19 lockdowns.

You can buy Ben’s flowers by contacting him on his social media channels - Instagram @crosslandsalstroemeria and Facebook at Crosslands Flower Nursery.