Fields of blooms

Beneath the petals and perfume lies a world of passion, perseverance, and creativity, as Marlborough’s flower growers breathe life into blooms that brighten days. Adrienne Matthews talks with three women who share their journeys into flower growing.

Flowers bring so much joy and colour to our lives. Whether it’s a vase of randomly chosen blooms picked fresh from the garden or a tiny Heartsease Viola growing through a crack in the pavement, they inspire feelings of pleasure with their vast array of colours and forms.

Flower growing in New Zealand used to be dominated by a small number of large firms that supplied the country’s florists and exported the rest. Covid and urban expansion have changed all that.

There are fewer of those growers now, and some flower-growing land has been subdivided into housing.

All is not lost, however. While some big producers remain, the floriculture industry is increasingly being refreshed by a myriad of small growers who are growing flowers for local customers. Since Covid, there has been a global growth in “cottage industries,” with more people wanting to work from home and carve out a purpose for their lives and that of their families that brings pleasure as well as an income.

The country’s famous entrepreneurial spirit has seen many people, mostly women, develop their own floriculture businesses.

The Marlborough region is no exception. With its excellent soils and dry summers, flower growers can generally be assured of an abundance of blooms for their efforts.

Meet Kelly Hammond from Fantail Fields flower farm. “I grew up loving my parents’ and grandparents’ gardens, which helped develop my love for being outside close to nature,” she says. “I appreciated being connected to the earth, and the flowers were a happy by-product.”

After working for a local flower grower, Kelly began her own project on a plot of borrowed land in Renwick seven years ago.

“It was a very small quarter-acre section, and I planted flowers in and around fruit trees growing there,” she explains. “I loved the satisfaction of seeing my hard work transform into beautiful blooms.”

Three years on, Kelly and her partner Ross moved to a lifestyle block in Spring Creek, allowing the flower farm to expand and a tunnel house was added to extend the growing season.

Kelly's mum, Margaret, raises the plants from seed at home, and they come to Kelly ready to be hardened off before planting. “It’s really cool to have her working with me, and she says it keeps her young,” laughs Kelly.

To match the growing trend for field-grown garden flowers, Kelly produces around 40 different varieties including lisianthus, dahlias, zinnias, delphiniums, solidago, sedum, matricaria, straw flowers, craspedia, and sunflowers, among others.

By the time Mother's Day rolls around in May, the days are getting shorter, and the first frost is only weeks away, bringing an end to the growing season, leaving the abundance of summer blooms feeling like a distant memory.

Growing flowers, however, is far from being easy, and each season brings its difficulties. “Mother Nature decides what will happen, and sometimes the results can be challenging,” says Kelly.

During the Marlborough floods a few years ago, the river breached its stopbank onto their lower paddocks and brought dreaded California thistle seed. “They are now a constant pest. We have also had the occasional late frost that has wiped out a crop.”

Flower growing is also hard on the body, with lots of bending. “We’ve worked on getting good routines in place to make it more manageable long-term,” she explains.

Kelly is grateful that she is able to do something that keeps her out in the natural world. “There is something very special about picking blooms that you know are going to make someone’s day.”

Nicola Mathews fell into flower growing by accident when she and her daughter purchased a property at Tuamarina in 2008. “We wanted a home for our animals but never actually walked over the whole place until after we’d moved in,” she says. To their amazement, they discovered a large area of beautiful lavender, planted neatly in rows behind a pile of overgrown grass.

“We got in, cleaned it up, and did some research on what we would need to do to maintain it and be able to get the oil extracted. We had to learn to use scythes to cut the lavender when it was at its peak and how to prune it so it would last as many years as possible.”

Until 2016, they harvested each season, taking it over the hill to Motueka in the Tasman district to have it distilled into oil, calling their brand Lavender and Ewe after their pet sheep and the lavender.

Four years ago, Nicola and her daughter Rachael moved to Northbank Road to be with her boyfriend (now husband), Jason. Taking lavender cuttings with them, they established a new lavender garden with raised beds, incorporating Ure river sand for drainage and mussel shells under the plants for weed control and light reflection. “We have tried to create as natural an environment as possible for the lavender,” said Nicola.

“Our lavender journey has been exciting, and we are proud to have won awards at the New Zealand Lavender Growers Association’s Oil Awards for the quality of oil we have produced.”

Nicola also picks lavender flowers for drying and loves to spend time creating lavender crafts to sell alongside the oil at local stores.

“I love everything about lavender – the feeling of stripping it when it’s dry and the gorgeous perfume. It helps me sleep well too.” Nicola has also recently caught the Dahlia growing bug which she is very excited about.

Rebecca Stoner of Willow & Rose Floral had been a florist for some years when she and her husband moved to their property in Marlborough after their first son was born. “I had grown up on a farm and had always had the thought of growing flowers in the back of my mind, so when we moved, I had the perfect opportunity,” she says. “I could also see that there was a demand for more locally grown flowers and different varieties than what had traditionally been available in florist shops, and it fitted in with our vineyard plans.”

It took the onset of Covid for her to start. “Originally, I was just going to grow shrubs for cutting but I realised I loved flowers too much. My first flower patch was tiny, but a friend bought every stem I produced and that encouraged me to expand.”

The plot has expanded considerably, with beautifully grassed areas separating the beds. “I didn’t want it looking like a commercial garden but more like a beautiful celebration garden to compliment the pond my father built as a memorial to my mother who passed away.”

Rebecca does have a range of fabulous shrubs for picking that she uses in her floral work such as phyllica, viburnum, riceflower, berzillia, snowballs, and protea, but the stars of the garden are the flowers. There are over 50 varieties, including sunflowers and dahlias, along with cottage garden types like cosmos, delphinium, larkspur, bupleurum, matricaria, snapdragons and a personal favourite, Celosia.

“It’s such a pleasure being able to grow beautiful flowers all the way from tiny seeds and then know that they are going to be gifted or bought by people for their own enjoyment. The most exciting aspect is choosing each year what I’ll grow.”