Ben’s Bad Boys say Thank You
Ben Cross, the oh so effervescent British Alstroemeria king and 4th generation grower from Crosslands Flower Nursery found a good home for his excess crop a couple of weeks ago and hasn’t looked back since.
Because rather than see a bumper crop go to waste as his key customer base in the UK – florists and churches – closed under lockdown rules he teamed up with Morrisons to send his blooms to frontline NHS workers with their food orders and his local hospital in Chichester. What’s more he also delivers to care homes nationwide as well.
But those are just some of the eight very different and innovative ways Ben has found to keep his family business going in what has to be some of the most challenging times.
“If I am honest we are permanently in survival mode; have been ever since my great, great grandparents started back in 1936, moving to their current Walberton site in 1957. This one though has been very different yet in some ways amazing.
Yes it’s been tough, very tough and yes we are having to look at very different ways to get product out of the greenhouses and into the hands of buyers but it has also been a huge wake up call to consumers who had no idea over 85% of flowers were imported.”
Because, as Ben said on his recent BBC interview (link below), flowers don’t know there’s a lock down and just keep on growing; in Ben’s case a rainbow of Alstroemeria available in 2 grades and delivered anywhere in the UK …. at both trade and consumer level.
Which meant making sure that even if, overnight, 5,000 florist shops shut, he had to find different ways to make sure he sold his tens of thousands of stems a week rather than dumping them.
“Since this all started in addition to our NHS and Care Home service, we’ve linked up with Beach Town Blooms (www.beachtownblooms.com) to offer letterbox flowers nationwide, we are delivering to customers around the Chichester area, and our relationship with Morrisons, one of the few supermarkets to still want our British Alstroemeria flowers instead of cheap foreign blooms, has been great.”
We’re also working with a lot of fruit and veg companies who are delivering our product with food orders, we still have safe collection points on site for local customers and our courier service to florists is still fully operational. It’s not easy but my nature is to keep on going and never be complacent.”
Best of all, as far as Ben is concerned, is the growing awareness about British grown flowers … a subject he is passionate about and which he uses his natural personality to promote to the full through his British Flowers Rock campaign.
“I’m an Instagram and Twitter person and our following has rocketed … people who are normally too busy to see anything are latching on to all sorts of posts and realising; we’ve added 500 new followers in the last fortnight. Hopefully after all this is over they won’t forget us and instead remember that Buying British is Best.”
For florists looking to stock Ben’s alstroe you can order two different grades – Best (5 x 90cm average) at around £2 or Posy quality (8 x 60cm average) at around £1.50. All prices plus VAT and delivery. To order you can ring Ben on 07712 332241 or email him at
Click this link to see Ben's BBC report
