Valentine’s Day Flowers - Grown here not Flown here

In Scotland, roses do not flower in February! Robbie Burns himself reminded us of the seasonality of our favourite flower in his poem ‘O my luve is like a red, red rose.’ As a ploughman in Ayrshire, It is likely that he was referring to our native dog rose, Rosa canina which he would see growing wild in the hedgerows. The dog rose has pink flowers but the buds to which Burns refers are indeed red. Burns records the month that the dog rose flowers in the second line of the poem ‘That’s newly sprung in June ‘.

Nowadays, we have come accustomed to buying roses all year round and to satisfy our need for red roses on Valentine’s Day a staggering 8 million stems will be imported into the UK this February. These are grown in countries located near the equator; Kenya, Columbia, India, Tanzania and as flowers are perishable, they cannot be transported by boat. Instead, they are flown almost 4,000 miles in refrigerated containers, mainly into Heathrow, and then transported 300 miles up the A1 to our supermarket.

With the challenges of climate change clearly focussing our minds, perhaps it is time to find beauty in our indigenous flora. We cannot enjoy the Dog rose until summer but surely Burns, himself an acute observer of the natural world, would urge us to seek out those plants that thrive in our Scottish landscape in late winter. As the days lengthen, our gardens and landscapes become covered with blankets of clear white snowdrops and yellow aconites. In the hedgerows, hazels bear catkins and evergreens like viburnums and mahonia add another dimension. For a truly personal Valentines Day offering, pop out to the garden, and pick a handful of stems - flowers, leaves, seed-heads so in 2020 your Valentine can enjoy a gift of nature that is grown here not flown here.