No. Unfortunately because of the types of flowers we grow, the end of October - start of November is actually about the absolute worst week of the year to have a garden festival! It's right bang smack in the middle of our flower lull as things change from the early spring flowers to the late spring flowers (ie. ranunculus to roses), so it always falls right when the field is at it's least inspiring moment.

Practically it's also right bang smack in the middle of our push to get everything planted for summer (dahlias / summer annuals). The climate at our new farm in Tikorangi is quite different to Stratford, so it might be possible in future years to make it work with a few key tweakings to our planning schedules, but we are not close to being there yet.

We will be offereing pre-orders for ranunculus plants next February-ish, for delivery later in Autumn. If you're a cut-flower grower actively selling please register your interest here for more information: Registration for Growers

I need to do up a more in depth post about the unique ranunculus challenges we face here in New Zealand, but the gist of it is, is that pretty much the entire world has the luxury and access to grow all the super special ranunculus from professionally grown corms. But because of a bacteria we don't want here, MPI have essentially banned ranunculus corm imports in NZ. So the only way we can grow most of the best ranunculus varieties is by growing them from seed (which isn't a carrier of the bacteria). This is not an easy process, and we're going in blind (as because nowhere else in the world do they have to grow from seed, there is very very little if any information on how best do it out there).

Because I love ranunculus soo much, I'm making it my life's mission to figure them out and source as many as physically/financially possible varieties from around the world and share them with you. This does take time, but I am excited I will be offering ranunculus plants to home gardeners this autumn (trust me you want them as plants as seeds are just too difficult, they like it cold, but need to be started in the heat summer to get the best flowers!).

This is something that has been making me sick with anxiety the closer they get to flowering, as I personally know all too well how disappointing receiving mislabeled dahlia tubers can be!

At this stage we're still waiting for all of our tubers to bloom and reveal themselves (might take another month or two yet, as we were soo late planting our own tubers after sending everyone else's out first). Once ours flower it'll be clear if we're dealing with oddball mislabels, or entire crates/varieties mislabels (due to our supplier which we would have had no control over).

Anyways if you think what you've got wasn't what you ordered please do let me know, and send a photo to hello@emerden.com along with your order number.

–Sarah