Daylesford Macedon Flower Farm Trail members open doors to public
Members of the new Daylesford Macedon Flower Farm Trail include Janae Paquin-Bowden — and her blossoming little family — from Fleurs de Lyonville.
PLANNING a road trip, a weekend country drive?
None come more fragrant and pretty, enchanted and romantic than the Daylesford Macedon Flower Farm Trail.
The trail, launched this year, involves 13 small flower farmers getting together to offer a series of events and experiences that run from spring to autumn.
Events are dotted throughout the calendar and include floral workshops, pick-your-own peonies, BYO picnics, a choice of freshly harvested blooms at roadside stalls and farm shops, or even accommodation.
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On December 15 Janae Paquin-Bowden, who runs Fleurs de Lyonville with her husband, Chris, and two children, will hold a farm tour (bookings only), alongside bud buddy Crofters Fold in nearby Pipers Creek.
Janae says the tour will give an insight into their 3ha property, which grows 50 different types of flowers. There are 120 different varieties of dahlias, as well as sweet peas, ranunculus and the charmingly named Billy buttons, which are sold in their roadside stall, farmers markets, and to local cafes, restaurants, brides and florists.
“This area has the highest concentration of slow-flower farmers in Victoria,” the 37-year-old says.
“The region has become known for its ethical, bee-friendly, sustainable flower farms and so the tour will show how to grow these kind of local, seasonal blooms.
“It’s perfect for gardeners or even people thinking of running their own flower farm.”
She says the Flower Farm Trail is the brainchild of Consortium Botanicus, which was started in 2017 by a group of the region’s small flower farmers and has spread around Australia, now with more than 700 subscribers.
Aside from the flower farm trail map and calendar, the Consortium’s website offers growers and consumers details on farms that are “100 per cent grown not flown”, all of which advocate holistic farming methods, “growing quality not quantity”.
“The group started initially as a collaboration — rather than competition — between small growers. So, for example, if a florist needed five buckets of sweet peas and I could only supply three, then another micro-farm would fill the order,” says Janae, who was one of the original Consortium Botanicus members.
“But the group is also about educating consumers on the importance of bee-friendly flowers, growing without chemicals, grown in season and sold in the area, with no plastic wrapping.”
Janae says she learnt the hard way about the downside to being a small grower, when 20cm of snow fell in October.
“It was a tricky start to the season, heartbreaking, because we lost poppies, because their tiny stems snapped with the weight of the snow.
“Then we had wild ducks come in and eat the flowers and we lost 280 delphiniums, 300 ranunculus and some anemones. We’re slowly catching up.”
Janae grew up in a green-thumb family, with her dad a landscape designer in Bendigo.
She and Chris — both teachers — bought the 3ha farm because they wanted to grow their own vegies and meat.
“We got married on the farm and before the wedding I was looking for locally-grown flowers and I couldn’t find them. We had to go to Nagambie.
“On my honeymoon I read a book about flower farming and told Chris, that’s what we’re going to do.”
After trial and error, Fleurs de Lyonville opened in 2017, now growing on 0.2ha.
With no synthetic inputs, the couple use their two pigs to till the soil, their flock of 17 chooks to fertilise and eat the slugs, as well as manure from their six black-faced Suffolk sheep and one guardian alpaca.
“Our method is all about closing the loop. So rather than get a tiller or tractor we use the pigs. We try to use what’s on the farm as best we can,” Janae says.
While most of the 13 farmers involved in the flower farm trail will run events in the spring to autumn period, Janae and Chris will hold a dahlia dividing workshop in winter and are contemplating holding a flower drying and pressing workshop in the new year.
Ideally, the couple would like to establish a teaching farm, to pass on the flower knowledge.
In the meantime Janae — a trained ceramic potter — is also cranking up production of vases and garden ornaments for the flower farm enterprise.
“It is a beautiful business to work on. We love our little piece of the world, it’s magical,” she says.
“Just the dahlias themselves I love their colours, shapes and sizes, from pompom to big dinner plate size. They’re all sculptures in themselves.”
● consortiumbotanicus.com.au/daylesfordmacedonflowerfarmtrail
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