Bloomin' marvellous
Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands, is ablaze with colourful flowers throughout the summer. Avid gardener Julia Maitland negotiates the Green Lanes in a Devon Monte Carlo, in search of some of the finest blooms
With a gleam in his eye Roly Cooke told me, “You want to treat roses like you treat a woman,” and burst into a peal of wicked laughter. He didn’t elaborate, but
I must admit that I’d never seen healthier roses than those at his farm in St Lawrence on Jersey. The leaves were dark glossy green, without a hint of blackspot or mildew and not a single greenfly in sight.
I was spending a few days on the largest of the Channel Islands in a sleek Devon Monte Carlo high-top. I was in search of flower-filled gardens, and wanted to see if I could learn a few tips from the experts while I was at it. With
its mild maritime climate and light,
well-drained soil, Jersey is well known
for its flora, both wild and cultivated. Depending on the time of year, the cliff-top heaths and meadows can be covered in daffodils, foxgloves, ragged robin and many other eye-catching flowers. By the height of summer a riot of bright blooms spills over the stone walls, catching your eye as you negotiate the narrow roads.
Roly Cooke has been growing roses at Le Passage Farm (tel 01534 863124) for more than 40 years, following in his father’s footsteps and supplying the local shops and hotels with more than one million blooms per year. Visitors and locals also turn up to tour the farm and buy bouquets of fresh blooms.
Roly grows around 50 commercial varieties, and is just about the only grower left in Britain to cultivate roses in the field without the protection of a polytunnel.
“How do you manage to grow such healthy looking roses?” I asked. Each row of vigorous upright plants was mulched with muck, which I suspected had something to do with it.
“I use horse manure mixed into the soil and as a mulch,” Roly replied. “I add blood, fish, bone, and lime, and apply
a seaweed foliar spray.” I thought of my roses at home: they get a dollop of
well-rotted muck that I collect from a local stable, but inevitably end up with
a dusting of mildew on their leaves.
“Roses get blackspot and mildew when they’re stressed,” said Roly, “They need
to be fairly moist at the base – mine aren’t sprayed very much at all.”
Roly and I wandered from the field in which spray roses were being grown and into one of his polytunnels. Had I been wearing my glasses they would have steamed up in all the heat and humidity. The lush leaves practically glowed with health, and Roly pointed out the little plastic pots and cards interspersed in the rows from which various beneficial bugs are introduced to prey upon greenfly and other pests. I quizzed Roly as to how he managed to grow the single flowers on such long, straight stems. “Prayer and hope!” he exclaimed, and laughed again.
At Le Passage Farm, Roly produces blooms from May until December, then prunes the plants hard like garden roses. He used to heat the polytunnels to keep the roses flowering in the winter, but with competition from abroad it just doesn’t make economic sense any more.
A tractor pulled up in the farmyard, towing a trailer laden with buckets full
of freshly picked roses. The farm-hand carried them into the sorting room where chattering ladies were busy sorting blooms into tightly packed bunches.
“Customers tell me that my roses have a more intense colour and last longer
than those from Holland,” Roly told me. “It’s because they’re grown naturally in soil and manure.”
He opened the door to one of the
cold-store rooms and I was greeted with
a blaze of colour: shades of yellow, pink, scarlet and peach. Roly told me that red roses are not surprisingly the most popular choice for Valentine’s day, but that customers are getting more adventurous and often choose peach and pink flowers “to match their curtains”. A bucket of purple blooms – so dark that they looked almost black – also caught my eye. I asked Roly what his own favourite garden variety was. The answer was “Admiral Rodney”, a two-tone pink hybrid tea rose with the scent of an old English rose.
I would agree with Roly that you just can’t beat the perfume of a rose on a warm summer afternoon. So if you’re in Jersey and want to buy some beautiful blooms to take home, or even to brighten your motorhome, you’ll find Roly’s farm on Le Passage, a left turn off the A10 just north of the church of St Lawrence.
Since I was in the centre of the
island that afternoon, I made plans to visit the Eric Young Orchid Foundation (tel 01534 861963) in Victoria village. I was a bit worried about getting there because the village is away from the A-roads and can be reached only by traversing the network of narrow green lanes. I’d been advised to take the signed road from the B31 south to Victoria, but I thought
the route from the A8 looked shorter
and promptly got lost!
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