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Let’s Talk Suffolk and Essex Issue 27
COUNTRY ROSES
Roses are our favourite summer flower – but when Danaë Brook, and husband, Robin Duthy, put their Essex paddock over to roses they probably never dreamt that one day Victoria Beckham would be showering them
When it comes to growing old-fashioned roses Little Horkesley couple, Danaë Brook and her husband, know a thing or two. But unlike the vast majority of rose growers in this country they set out to sell cut flowers and in doing so have gained business across the land.
Country Roses is based at Josselyns, Little Horkesley, and was founded in 2001, when the couple planted 500 bushes in a small paddock.
‘We believed we could find a market for them because nowhere in England could you walk into a florist and find true English garden roses with the scent and colour to transform a room,’ said Danaë (who is pictured above and on our cover).
Due to increasing demand they now grow over 6,000 bushes in a long field in front of their house. These include more than 30 varieties of fragrant old-fashioned roses in a range of colours from pink to red and white, deep purple and pale apricot.
As highly specialised rose-growers they deliver to private houses in London and across the UK, and to top florists including celebrity florist Paula Pryke, who was born and brought up in Sudbury.
As a result they’ve been praised by the great and the good including Victoria Beckham, who is said to love the roses, and Lady Annabel Goldsmith who uses them for her annual summer party.
The Country Roses team also works with local clients and florists and provides thousands of roses for Suffolk and Essex weddings, dances, dinners and parties.
Brides can either come to the barns at Josselyns to collect the roses they choose, or Country Roses can send their flowers, after consultation with Danaë, across Britain and even to France and Ireland. Fresh petal confetti is also available.
During the winter, when the roses die down, millions of petals are dried at Country Roses for confetti and pot pourri. They are laden with lavender and sold from the website on the internet as packages of dried petals, and pot pourri.
Danaë Brook is an author and journalist for the Mail on Sunday, and writes on travel for Harpers and Queen.
Last year she appeared on This Morning, with Fern Britton and Phillip Schofield, presenting and writing a special edition of five films exclusively about roses.
She is currently working on a book about her experience with roses called ‘A Passion for Roses.’