Flower Growing

Extract of stained glass window in Spalding Parish Church showing flowers being harvested by hand.

In Spalding Parish Church there are two windows created by the eminent stained glass artist H. W. Harvey in 1966. Both are very bright and colourful, but one commemorates the picking of tulips, which is what the area was famous for, but flower growing in the area did not start with tulips.

If you look at the directories from 1872 onwards you see  many florists that are also seedsmen and market gardeners, the separate role as a florist only gradually increases, this suggests an increasing fashion and trade in cut flowers.

In 1882 we see Mr Christmas Quincey described as a gardener and seedsman. By 1885 we see Mrs Elizabeth Quincey of Fulney Spalding described as a Wholesale Fruitier and Bulb Grower. She was reported to grow up to 6 acres of daffodils, cutting the flowers for sale and lifting and selling bulbs. She was certainly one of the early bulb growers in the area.

The other pioneer of bulb growing that I have identified is J.T. White. He was already a trader of goods in Spalding and in the 1870’s started selling snowdrop bulbs for pharmaceutical use.

Snowdrops have been used as medicine since ancient times. The bulbs he bought off cottagers who would dig them up out of orchards. He found he had some surplus and planted those bulbs on land in Little London Spalding. As they grew up he dug up clumps of the flowering  plants as an experiment and shipped them to London via his contacts to see if they would sell and they did.  In this way J.T. White had created a new market. He too started to grow and trade daffodils as well as hyacinths, crocus and gladioli which by 1881 were being traded by him alongside tulips. At this stage almost all growing was outdoors.

There was a singular factor that aided the growth of the industry and that is the vast number of small freehold farmers and cottagers that were able to grow these flowers. Flower growing was very labour intensive so growing on a smaller scale and selling on to a wholesaler who could make the market like Mr. J. T. White was ideal. “….many a cottager and small farmers make a few welcome shillings, if no more of their little patches.” (The Guardian 14th Jan 1889). By 1890 Mr. J.T, White had bought 7 acres plus warehouse and greenhouses and a further 20 acres by 1894. As well as growing in fields, he forced under glass and bought flowers and bulbs throughout the area.

In 1890 we see Richard Wellband, Philip Clarke and George Dickinson growing double daffodils each on areas just under an acre. But they cannot keep pace with demand and you see them advertising to buy flowers in. Cowbit, near Spalding saw a particular growth in flower growing due to that area being dominated by small farmers. With flower growing requiring more labour to the acre it could supply a greater return to small plots making a big difference to the small farmer. To give an impression of the size of the market in 1892 you see George Dickinson of Whaplode advertising for 25,000 double daffodils. Similarly you see J.T. White advertising that he wants to purchase snowdrops and double daffodils and will give, “full market prices.”

Tulips were certainly being grown in Spalding by 1907 when I have found Mr Samuel Culpin growing Darwin Tulips in Spalding. Prior to this date this variety of tulips was grown to quite a large scale on two ten acre plots in Scotland.[i] By 1920 we see more forcing of tulips, narcissus and iris under glass.

The cropping and packing of flowers was considered better work for women, it was also felt that women and girls would take more care in the cropping, as well as being cheaper to employ. So by 1898 we see adverts for mothers and daughters to crop flowers, the former providing discipline to the later.

There are many names of note in the flower and bulb industry around Spalding. Perhaps the area’s largest current bulb business is Taylors bulbs which had very humble begins in 1919 when Otto Augustus Taylor, and ex-serviceman, took advantage of a scheme for former servicemen to have their own smallholding. From this grew the seeds of what is possibly the nation’s largest bulb business based in the Holbeach area.

Bulbs, especially tulip bulbs, have been famously grown and traded by the Dutch, with the golden age of bulb growing in 1637 seeing a peak as bulbs became worth more than their equivalent weight in gold with individual bulbs trading at six times the average man’s salary before experiencing a market collapse of price. As already mentioned, this area of the fens has close links and relationships with the Netherlands going back centuries that has effected and shaped our landscape and commerce from decoys and drainage to bulbs and bananas. In the 1930’s and after the War we see dutchmen moving to the area and establishing wholesale bulb businesses such as: Gerit Teeuw in 1935 who developed what was to become Gee Tee Bulbs originally in Spalding, and latterly in Moulton Seas End; the 1930’s saw John Van Geest arrive, possibly the first bulb grower in the UK to use a chilling process to force the bulbs to grow; other familiar names arrived post War such as Peter Borst of Top Score Bulbs and my childhood neighbour Bob Goemans.

Growing outdoors presented problems of reliability. Today the market for early daffodils is for the Mothering Sunday market in March. In the 1930’s Easter was the main early market. But Easter is a moving feast from year to year and the challenge is getting the daffodils to grow just right for picking for this market. 1934 saw the outdoor crop bloom late for this market. Growing under glass improved this risk. However, as chilling of bulbs was perfected it became possible to time with accuracy the maturing of the flowers.

By 1937 daffodils were being grown on an estimated 1000 acres  around Spalding. There were over 600 bulb and flower growers within a few miles of Spalding. The industry at that time  employed 5000 people for at least 9 months of the year, 75% of them female, mostly young girls that would crop, sort, tie and pack the flowers. In 1936 Spalding railway station alone shipped 25,000 tons of flowers in 3 million boxes.[ii]

World War II saw a massive drop in the acreage of bulbs grown down to 915 acres in 1943, but by 1958 the area was planting over 6000 acres of bulbs.

Many businesses benefitted, like so many more out of supplying to the flower and bulb growing business. Specialist fertilizer for “hothouse” flowers, greenhouses for growers, packing cases and bulb trays (W. Groom) and packaging and printed labels and bands for flowers from the Spalding Free Press. My point being that besides the 5000 or so directly employed in Flower picking and packing and bulbs there were a whole raft of businesses and their employees that supplied the growers showing the great benefit to the area. This is before we consider the tourist industry that developed out of the growing of flowers.

In 1948 we see the establishment of the tulip route, as the outdoor grown tulips are about to come into bloom a route was signed out initially covering about 25 miles meandering around the various tulip fields. This started to attract many from private motor vehicles to organised bus trips. It caught on as a means to promote the tulip trade and 1950 saw the annual crowning of Spalding’s first Tulip Queen who would ride around the route in a bus. In 1959 this had the Spalding Tulip Parade added to the event that grew to a huge event in the centre of Spalding that peaked at around a million visitors in 1977. As Tulips both fell out of fashion and changed how they were grown the event changed and became The Spalding Flower Parade.

I recall being driven around the tulip route in the 1970’s, but each year the fields became less and less. The tulips in local fields were grown for bulbs. The tulips were de-headed to allow the bulb to mature and split and the heads were used to decorate the parade floats. But several things happened. Increasingly bulbs were bought from the Netherlands which operated on a larger scale with lower costs in a modernised industry. Cut flowers moved under glass where they could be grown more reliably in hydroponic trays without soil, peat or compost with greater quality and consistency. Tulips disappeared from the fields, although daffodils remained.

2013 marked the 55th and final flower parade. Fortunately May 2023 has seen a successful revival of this parade. Nowadays fields of tulips are a rarity in Lincolnshire with some of the last small fields grown by people because in their words, “they liked to see them”. However, some large fields of tulips can be found nearby in Norfolk and during 2021 enjoyed several thousand visitors to raise money for charity. Lack of labour following Covid and Brexit has hit flower growers hard and the fields of daffodils are now much reduced.

Tulip picking thought to be near Moulton Chapel

Daffodils grown under glass 1961

[i] Stephens Book of the Farm 5th Edition 1908

[ii] Celebration of Tulipland for the accession of George VI of England in 1937.