Imported Flowers and Plants.

The UK is a small and crowded island, and there is not enough land to grow crops to meet the demand. Flowers and plants have to be imported. This is particularly important during the winter months, when low light and heat levels mean that some crops are impossible to grow economically. Other countries have brighter light, warmer weather, cheaper land and labour costs - which outweigh the high cost of exporting flowers and plants. While many countries are starting to grow flowers and plants commercially, there are a small number of countries from which the UK imports most of its products. These are listed below, together with the main crops they grow.

Belgium – pot plants
Canary Islands – chrysanthemums, roses
Caribbean – tropicals, foliage
Chile – carnations, roses
Colombia – standard & spray carnations, roses
Denmark – pot plants
Ecuador – carnations, roses
Holland – all flowers and pot plants
India – roses
Israel – roses, gypsophila, waxflower, anigozanthos, all summer flowers
Italy – carnations, chrysanthemums, foliage, foliage plants
Kenya – roses, carnations, spray carnations, statice
Malta – chrysanthemums, `Paper White' narcissi
Morocco – spray carnations
South Africa – proteas, strelitzia, roses, exotics
Spain – carnations, chrysanthemums
Thailand – orchids
Turkey – spray carnations
Venezuela – carnations, roses


The country we import the most cut flowers from is Holland (but these may have come from other countries via their auction house system). The UK also imports significant amounts from Colombia, Israel, and Kenya. We import pot plants mainly from Holland, Belgium, and Denmark.