By David Morrow, National Certificate in Horticulture Student, Greenmount Campus, 1970 – 1971

I am a third generation grower and have grown horticulture crops all my working life. I grew up on the family nursery - Thomas Morrow and Sons, Bessbrook, Newry where we have been growing horticulture crops since 1939. At the age of 17, I studied the National Certificate in Horticulture at Greenmount specialising in commercial glasshouse production.  After I completed my studies I spent six months at the University of Reading assisting with their Horticultural research programme before returning to the family business.   

A successful horticulture business is market driven and willing to change and adopt new technology. Our business has remained successful because we have always produced crops based on market requirements, been keen to learn and to adopt new crops and techniques to change with the times.  When the business first started we grew outdoor field vegetable and salad crops.  Then we diversified into glasshouse salad crops such as tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, lettuce, scallions and celery and traditional flower crops such as chrysanthemums.  In recent years we have focused on cucumber production. However with new market opportunities in cut flowers we are now focusing our efforts more on growing flower crops for the Irish market.

The idea for going back into producing cut flowers came from attending short courses and knowledge technology transfer events on cut flower production at Greenmount Campus were the new opportunities for cut flower production were explained.  I discussed the possibilities with potential customers and realised that it presented me with a good business opportunity.

My local CAFRE Development Adviser, David Davidson has worked closely with me to assist me to successfully adopt the technology to grow cut flower crops that meet my customer’s requirements.  In 2006 I started growing high quality cut flower lilies for the RoI market. This was successful and I have continued to develop the production of cut flower lilies and also this year in conjunction with Greenmount I have adopted two new cut flowers which have been received well by my target market.  These are stock and antirrhinum for the RoI market.  I have been able to produce excellent quality flowers. This has generated market interest so I plan to continue to increase the cut flower production side of the business in line with my customer’s requirements.

If you are interested in learning more about the opportunities to grow cut flowers then my advice would be to contact Greenmount Campus who organise workshops and knowledge technology transfer events on how to grow and to market cut flowers and foliage. During the workshops you can exchange ideas with other people wanting to learn about this area of opportunity. Then carefully research your local markets to determine what flowers or foliage you could sell. Check out the CAFRE cut flower and foliage web pages on the DARD Rural Portal.

David Morrow (rear) and CAFRE Cut Flower Development Adviser David Davidson discussing performance of a stock crop.

David Morrow (Left) and CAFRE Cut Flower Development Adviser David Davidson discussing performance of an antirrhinum crop