Visiting the farm
At the moment we are closed to the public, except for an occasional Open Day or two – keep an eye out on our social media / email newsletter so you don't miss out on our next one. We don't have a pre-set schedule for them, and often decide quite at the last minute when we're going to have one.
As the farm is also my private home, please do respect my privacy (which I do hold very dear) and refrain from popping out unannounced. If you would like to pick-up /buy flowers from our farm please place an order through our website as early in the day as possible (preferably the day before if possible) so we can have them ready and made-up for you. We do not offer pick-ups on weekends.
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 this year is not a business as usual year, as we're still drowning in massive setting up jobs!
Seeds & Bulbs
Unfortunately due to the volume of orders and the small size of our packing and processing orders team (aka my Mum & myself), we do not have the resources to be able to edit orders (add or remove items). If you would like to order extra seeds/bulbs to your original order, please place a new order. We are also unable to combine separately placed orders.
Besides special pre-orders (like dahlia tubers & ranunculus plants), most orders are sent out within about 3–4-ish business days of orders being placed. Delivery then takes between 1–5 days depending on your address & if you're rural delivery.
At this stage we're thinking of having 2–3 main releases of bulbs & seeds throughout the year, make sure that you're signed up to the newsletter so you know exactly when we release!
Available in Autumn (February-ish)
Italian Anemone Corms
NZ Tulip Bulbs
Hardy Annual Seeds
Italian Ranunculus Plants (pre-orders)
Available Winter (July-ish)
Full Range of Seeds (Hardy & Summer Tenders)
Available Early Spring (late August / September-ish)
Dahlia Tubers (which we'll have grown ourselves next year vs the nightmare of importing! Yay!!)
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!).
Flowers
Not at the moment, we do have plans to offer simple bouquets + buttonholes + buckets of flowers type options in future seasons, but again this season we're taking a step back from everything as we set the new farm back up again.
Not at this stage unfortunately. As we're still setting up the new farm, we're only offering limited options for our flowers this season, and are unable to offer custom arrangements at this time.