What Flowers Are in Season in November in the UK?

Short answer: November has the shortest British list of the year. The frost has taken the garden crops, the evergreen season has not quite started, and what is genuinely in season here is chrysanthemums, berried and fruiting stems, foliage, and the first forced bulbs. Almost everything else in a November bouquet was flown in.

November is the handover month. For the first three weeks the buckets still look like late autumn — bronze, rust, berry — and in the last week of the month the fir, spruce and holly arrive and everything changes at once. If you are ordering flowers in November it helps to know which side of that line your date falls on.

What is actually in season in the UK in November?

The honest British list is short: chrysanthemums, both outdoor-grown early in the month and glasshouse-grown after; hypericum berries; rose hips; snowberry; viburnum berries; ivy in berry; holly from the middle of the month; and foliage — eucalyptus, ruscus, pine and the first fir at the end.

Add to that the forced bulbs, which are a November crop in Britain rather than a spring one: paperwhite narcissi, hyacinths in pots and amaryllis, all brought on under glass to flower indoors from late November through January. They are the only genuinely fragrant thing available all month.

Is anything still grown outdoors in November?

Very little, and only until the frost. Once the first proper frost has been through — usually mid-October to early November in London — the dahlias, cosmos, asters and annuals are finished for the year, and they do not come back until next summer.

What survives outdoors is woody: berried branches, hips, ivy, holly, and the evergreen foliage that is cut rather than grown for flower. Everything else British in November came out of a glasshouse. That is not a criticism — glasshouse chrysanthemums are a serious crop here — but it is why the word "seasonal" means something different in November than it does in June.

When do evergreens actually start?

The last week of November, and this is the single most useful date in the month. Fresh-cut fir, spruce, pine, holly and mistletoe come into the London markets from roughly the 25th of November onwards. Anything sold as a fresh wreath earlier than that has either been made from dried material or has been sitting long enough that it will not last to Christmas.

That is why our Christmas wreaths are made from the end of November rather than from the start, and why the peak week for ordering one is the first ten days of December — a wreath goes up when the tree does, not on Christmas Eve.

What about amaryllis and forced bulbs?

Amaryllis is the November flower most people forget. The season runs from late November to January, the stems are enormous, and a single bulb in a pot will throw two or three flower spikes over about six weeks — much better value than a cut bouquet if the gift needs to last.

Paperwhite narcissi and hyacinths do the same job and add scent, which nothing else in a November room does. All three are sold as growing plants rather than cut stems; see plants for what we have. If the recipient has cats, ask us first — several of the bulb crops are not safe for them.

Which November flowers survive a heated flat?

This is the month the heating comes on, and it halves vase life. In a room at 22°C, a bouquet that would hold two weeks in October holds about eight days.

What copes: chrysanthemums (still the longest-lasting cut flower of the month), berried and woody stems, eucalyptus and other foliage, and potted bulbs. What does not: anything soft-stemmed and imported at speed, particularly tulips, which stretch and flop in a warm room, and gerbera. Keep the vase away from radiators and out of the path of underfloor heating, change the water every second day, and expect a shorter run than in autumn — the numbers in how long flowers last are for a cool room.

What is flown in during November?

Most of what is on sale. Roses from Kenya, Ecuador and the Netherlands; lisianthus; alstroemeria; lilies; gerbera; orchids; and the southern-hemisphere peonies from Chile and New Zealand, whose season runs from about late October to January at prices well above the British summer crop.

None of this is hidden or unusual — the British cut-flower industry supplies a minority of what the country buys, and in November that share is at its lowest point of the year. If seasonality is what you want from a November bouquet, it has to be built from chrysanthemums, berries and foliage; if it is a particular flower you want, it will be imported, and that is a fair trade to make.

Are chrysanthemums only for remembrance?

In Britain they carry that association strongly in November, partly because of Remembrance Sunday and partly because of the funeral trade, where chrysanthemums have been standard for decades. In much of continental Europe the association is stronger still.

It is worth knowing before you send them, because the recipient may read the flower rather than the arrangement. In practice the form does the talking: a single-headed white chrysanthemum spray reads as sympathy, while a mixed bronze and plum arrangement with berries and foliage reads as autumn. If you want the season without the association, ask for the mixed autumn treatment or look at our autumn collection. For genuinely sympathetic flowers we keep a separate sympathy range, which is where that brief belongs.

When should you order Christmas flowers?

Wreaths and door pieces: the first ten days of December, and they can be reserved in November. Table arrangements and centrepieces for Christmas week: order by the middle of December, because that is when the good material sells out rather than when the deliveries stop. Bouquets for delivery on the day itself: our London cut-off is the 24th of December, and the rest of the country is the 18th.

The full timetable is in when to order Christmas flowers in London, and if your date is in December, what is in season in December explains why that month is a foliage season rather than a flower one. For the month just gone, see what was in season in October.

We deliver across London seven days a week, same-day on orders placed before 22:00, and the Christmas collection opens as soon as the fresh evergreen arrives at the end of the month.