Welcome back to Dish the Dirt, the podcast that celebrates the voices behind Australian grown flowers, from backyard growers to large scale farmers.

In today's episode I'm joined by Emily from Petal and Bow Flowers, based in Kanamble and northern NSW.

What began as a small maternity leave passion project has grown into something truly special, with Emily now cultivating over 4 hectares of native paper daisies alongside a beautiful mix of specialty spring balloons.

We chat about what it takes to grow flowers in a warm, dryer climate, how Emily and her husband built their own seed cleaning system from scratch, and the incredible fundraising program they've developed helping schools and community groups across Australia grow, learn and connect through flowers.

I first met Emily through the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show when I put the call out for growers to be part of Growers Ave.

Without hesitation she jumped on board and shipped boxes of her stunning Rodenti down to Victoria and then made the drive herself to join us in person.

That generous can do spirit sums her up perfectly.

Emily is a true gem, grounded, passionate, and full of practical wisdom, and I've loved getting to know her.

I know you will too.

So let's get into it.

Dish the Dirt is recorded and edited on the lands of the Wondry people of the Kulin Nation, the traditional custodians of the beautiful Yarra Valley.

We acknowledge their enduring connection to land, water, skies, and culture, and we pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging.

We recognize that this land has always been a place of storytelling, knowledge sharing, and deep connection to nature.

We are grateful to record this podcast on country, and we honor the custodians who have cared for it for thousands of years.

Hi Emily, It's lovely to have you on the podcast today.

How are you?

I'm good, thank you.

That's great.

So we're gonna chat today a little bit about your farm and where you're situated and what you're growing at the moment.

So do you wanna tell us start off where you are and what your name is?

Yeah.

So I'm Emily and I'm from Petalumbo Flowers.

So we're situated in sort of northern NSW at Kanamble.

So about 170 K sort of north of Dubbo would be sort of our major centre.

OK, what's the climate like there?

It is fairly warm, yeah.

Yeah, right.

We haven't seen you're in short slaves.

Yeah, we've got a pretty warm climate and we sort of don't.

I sort of feel like we get two seasons rather than, you know, Four Seasons.

We're sort of winter and then summer.

Yeah, we have very short seasons.

OK, so what's it like at the moment?

Because we're recording in what's this month, June.

So yeah, what's the weather like right now?

It's just started to cool down here.

Yeah.

So we've had a bit of rain over the past week, which was really nice.

And now, yeah, we're sort of starting to light the fires.

Yeah, awesome.

So do you want to tell us what you're growing on your farm?

So we, our farm is set up in I suppose 2 locations.

So just out of knamble we have our cut flower patch which is about 500 square metres of like where we grow our speciality spring cut flowers.

So in this garden bed, it's generally we grow some of our paper daisies there and then it's sort of poppies, Delphinium stalk, ranunculus, they're sort of our main flowers that we grow in town.

And then the second part of our business is we actually have a paper Daisy field full of rodancing daisies which are an Australian native and we grow them about 15 KE of Canaanville on my in laws family farm.

OK, by Daisy field can OK, that to me just seems like, you know, a little patch, but could you give us like because it's not just a field, it's like a lot of land doesn't.

It so you know 2024 we grew 1.3 hectares of pink and white paper daisies.

Yeah, wow.

And then, yeah, this year we've actually just saw in about 10 days ago 4 hectares of the pink and white paper daisies.

So wow, yeah, it's quite an amazing spot because we're sort of on the black soil plains of Kanamble, and then it overlooks the Warren Bungle mountain ranges.

Amazing.

So you know, do you just sow them once a year or do you turn over?

You know, does it?

I don't know, go does the Petit do like a couple of times a year?

No.

So we just do 1 timing of the year.

So they've been, yeah, sowing sort of the end of May.

And then we grow them and cut the flowers probably in about September.

And then seed will be sort of October, November, just depending on the season.

And now you know how warm it gets out quickly.

Yeah, towards the end.

Great, So why 4 hectares of paper daisies?

What's drawn you to doing these native paper daisies?

They're just stunning, absolutely stunning and they're really easy to grow and that's probably what drew the US to them.

They're so easy to grow and we grow them like just on a dry land, you know, cropping paddock.

So there's no irrigation or anything.

We're just fully reliant on the seasonal conditions and being a very water wise specie.

If they're yeah, they're easy to grow here and don't need a lot of rainfall.

Yeah, fabulous.

So did you have a farming background before you did this or you just went straight into sewing 1.5 hectares of paper disease and hoping for the best?

Well, we've grown.

So in 2022 is when our we started growing cut flowers in town.

So we had, you know, tried a few different varieties and sort of worked out what grows best here for our conditions and our season.

And my husband, he has a farming background.

So yeah, I suppose he's sort of the the practical mind behind growing the daisies.

Yeah, fabulous.

And so once they're sown, it takes how many months for them to be mature?

A couple, Two or three.

Yeah.

So I've got like 90 days to flowering, so sort of your three months.

So they're, yeah, very quick from planting to flowering.

OK, wonderful.

And then from there, what do you do?

So you're, do you just go through, cut them?

I can imagine that takes some time.

Do you want to just talk us through?

Yeah.

How you sell them?

What happens from there?

Yeah.

So last year we cut about 7000 bunches of paper daisies and then we dry them in the grain shed.

So we've built racks that all stack up and yeah, we can bunch and dry our paper daisies and they take it probably about 3 weeks to dry properly.

So that's a bit of a process.

And we get some, you know, employ people and we have lovely volunteers who come in and help us to pick our paper daisies and help us get them dry.

And then, yeah, we don't pick and dry and we do some fresh as well.

However, that's just to the local market because I think we're about 600 KS from, you know, like the Sydney market.

So getting a fresh product to there is quite logistical.

So we just refresh locally and then our dry product we find quite easy to send around.

Yeah, it does ship beautifully.

I know that because you shipped a whole lot down for the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show and that was so beautiful.

But so just apart from dry, like selling them as dried and fresh flowers, what else happens with them?

So once we've picked, you know, however many bunches we're going to do for dried and fresh, we then let the field go to sea, which, you know, it takes a few more weeks.

So it's kind of really pretty because you've pink vibrant flowers.

Then they start to fade and they all go white.

My.

Gorgeous.

Centers start to go fluffy as the seed develops.

So then we harvest our seed and we've been able to clean it on farm.

Yeah.

So clean it and package it.

So now we have FC packets for sale.

So we sell it in three different sizes, A10, a 20 and a 50g pack.

And we've also just launched into fundraising packs as well for sort of schools and community groups.

Yeah, wonderful.

So when, I don't know, when you started back in 2022, did you have a clear plan that this was going to go this way or it's just sort of emerged?

It's really emerged.

So when we first sort of started, I was purely growing for the local florists and I was doing nothing, you know, I wasn't arranging or doing any flowers myself.

And I was trying to grow, you know, spring and summer flowers.

And then so over the years from there, we've sort of worked out that spring flowers, that is our best time.

So, you know, planting now for spring flowers because otherwise our climate's just a bit too hard.

And it was a lot of work, but not a lot of reward.

So then that's sort of how the business has eventuated.

And yeah, the paper dates in job sort of works in with our spring flowers.

We're picking all at the same time and then over summer instead of having summer flowers when more, you know, processing our seed and packaging seed.

Yeah, getting ready for the new year when people start planting.

Yeah, fabulous.

Let's just take it back a little bit.

How did you get into flowers?

I know your husband's a farmer, but how did you start?

Did you pick up a floret book like everyone else or?

Yeah.

Oh, you did.

Oh good.

And then I just on maternity leave with my second, yeah, I just sort of started reading and we had bought a little block in town.

And so I was just sort of, you know, reading the books that everyone reads.

And, yeah, got the ideas.

And that's how I sort of got started.

Yeah, fabulous.

And do you have a?

Did you have a floristry background at all?

No, definitely.

And that's something that, I don't know, I've probably struggled with a little bit.

And that's why I was so comfortable in the start, just growing and selling to the florist.

And so when they closed down after I think about 12 months of me growing, yeah, it was a whole new ball game, sort of.

Yeah.

Going into having to market and arrange.

Yeah, my room floundered.

Yeah, fabulous.

And now do you still, are you still selling your bunches and bouquets?

Do people order from you?

Do they come and pick up from the farm?

How does that side work?

Yeah, so we do it all online and I've just got like a little flower studio out the back of the house.

So yeah, we, you know, this time of year we buy in flowers or source flowers.

We're pretty lucky.

We've got some like native growers around our sort of region so we can source from them.

Yeah.

And then in spring, you know, we just, yeah, it's trying to sell mostly just all our own stuff that we've grown through, you know, the website.

We do deliveries but then through local cafes in Yeah Gil and Wogan and Can Amble.

Yeah, great.

So it seems like you've just grown so quickly from planting, you know, 1.5 hectares of paper daisies to now planting for hectares and also other sort of, I guess, like your other flowers on the side too.

Let's go back to the fundraising packs.

Why did you decide to do those?

And I know where did that idea come from, because it's something quite unique, I think.

The idea was probably around, I found that growing flowers, you sort of you build this real community around you when people love what you're doing.

So now I just love the idea of having a product that's easy to grow that can be used as a fundraiser and then it's forming a community around what people are fundraising for.

So you're not just buying, for example, a chocolate and getting aged and then you've forgotten about, you know, what it was even for.

It's sort of forming a community around raising the funds.

And then everyone's growing, you know, the flowers and they can share them.

And it's just, yeah, the flawing effect I think is where it came from, wanting to do, if you're going to be fundraising, having something that's really meaningful.

Yeah, I love that.

I love that.

And so how do people get onto you for the fundraising perhaps?

What's the process?

So we've got it all set up, Yeah, on our website, which was petal and bow flowers.

So there's a whole page there on fundraising, how it runs and what's involved.

And we've also sort of gone and created your social media templates, prompts for you posters, because sometimes I think that can be an extra job for some committees who are short on volunteers.

So we've just tried to make it really easy and accessible to everyone.

Yeah, great.

And then the seeds as well.

How did you do you mind going into the process of kind of packaging seeds?

Is it hard to do?

It seems like a big job.

It's quite a process to clean the seeds.

So there's about a four step process which yeah, my husband has sort of nutted out and done.

So it takes a lot of time because when we're harvesting the seed, like with the head up, we get a lot of chaff and petals and sort of crash in with the seed.

So then it's quite a big job to separate it all out, especially when the chaff product that is getting taken through the head or with the seed, they're generally the same weight, which, OK, Yeah, the seed grading quite difficult.

Yeah, OK.

So we just package everything up by hand ourselves.

Wow, that's, that's really like a lot of work, isn't it?

And are you really enjoying this side of the business?

Is it different from having the bouquets?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, great.

I think it's really nice to be able.

It's nice to share a bouquet with someone, someone's loved one, delivering it on their behalf.

But it's really nice to see people like growing your product and sharing it and loving it.

So I really love that side of it.

I'm just going to put a little segue in here.

I am the world's worst gardener.

Lots of people actually ask me about daily advice and I know all sorts of things.

I think they think I have like a farming podcast or something.

But they got some beautiful packets from you at the Flower Show.

And I thought, OK, you just said scatter them, maybe break the ground, scatter them and they'll just pop up.

They need water.

I think you told me water them straight away.

So I did that and they are growing.

They're now like about this big.

And I am so amazed because I, yeah, like I said, I can't ever grow anything.

So I definitely think if I can do it, anyone out there can do it.

So I would highly recommend grabbing some of your seeds.

And I can't wait.

Take like a big think of like Daisy.

So we'll wait and see.

We haven't gotten to that point yet, but hopefully I don't kill them from like germination all the way through, you know, like they could still be something that I do wrong.

But yeah, I'm very excited.

So I highly recommend somebody grabbing some of your seeds.

It's been your biggest learning curve.

In the last 12 months, probably the marketing and yeah, designing packaging, yeah, yeah, which OK, being very, yeah, you know a little bit different and.

Yeah.

And how have you gone about doing that?

Have you done any courses or have you chatted to people?

Just a lot of market research, you know, you know, going to the local nurseries and looking at seed packets and getting ideas and then, you know, researching, you know, because we have compostable packaging, you know, finding all these people that can fit in with align with our, you know what we want our business to.

Yeah, cover.

So yeah.

And then we, you know, engage with graphic design and to put it all together.

So that's.

You.

Know massive learning, yeah, You know how we should structure things and I'd still change a lot of things so yeah, it'll be an evolving process.

Yeah, that's such a good point to make, too.

I think you can grow the flowers, but it's always the business side of things too, isn't it, that you have to think about and the marketing and all of that.

You know, you might be the best flower grower in the world, but you don't know how to get your product out there.

It's something that you have to learn.

Yeah.

And it's really something growing flout that you don't always think about, like how where am I going to send these flowers?

Where are they going to go to, especially when we don't have the local florists close by, How are we going to move all this product?

So that's been a big learning curve.

Are you wholesaling your any of your products to anyone?

No, not in the market.

We move like all our flowers.

We move ourselves.

We have wholesaled a lot of dry bunches.

Yeah, the.

Country.

But all the fresh stuff we move ourselves and then seed.

Yeah.

We're just starting to get that sort of wholesale process rolling.

Yeah, great.

So if a florist, say, from Melbourne wants to use your paper daisies, are they able to do that?

Are they able to like, get on, send you an e-mail and say I want like 100 bunches of paper daisies or you don't do that?

Yes, yeah, we do.

OK, awesome.

Yeah, Yeah, we.

Sort of sent them all round, yeah.

Queensland, NSW and Victoria.

Yeah, great.

And what has been your biggest success so far?

Probably growing the paper day season then getting the seed to a selling point.

Yeah, OK.

Because it's been trial and error and we haven't known is this going to work?

Is it not going to work?

Are we harvesting the seed at the wrong time?

Is it going to be viable?

And then we actually sent our seed away for a seed test and then we came back in 100% germination, which is amazing.

So we sent it away to a lab.

So yeah, it's just been trial and error the whole time and hoping that we don't make a, you know, make a mistake and then, yeah, mess up sort of our whole season.

Yeah, yeah, it's a tough one, isn't it?

Because you're, you're relying on that, you know, one cutting period to then, you know, do all the rest of the bits of your business.

So it's like, I guess farming is always that kind of gamble.

Being part of Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show.

How did you find that?

It was, it was really quite amazing.

I didn't know what to expect.

I had no idea.

But yeah, I found it a really great event and I found Growers Ave.

Yeah, a wonderful way to connect with other the other growers and also like the consumer, the general public as well.

Yeah, I thought it was great.

Yeah, it was a lot of fun, wasn't it?

Hopefully there's a lot of lessons to be learnt and you know, next year we can bring it back bigger and better, hopefully.

Fingers crossed.

Say that I know what I was going to ask you now was about when you started growing your paper daisies.

Were there any resources that you use that you found really helpful or any industry bodies that you reached out to?

No, not really, no.

We sort of just went to add it, I suppose using my husband's farming background and you know, he's sort of practical knowledge is really how we went about it.

We kind of winged our first season, I think.

Yeah, great.

How good?

Well, I guess you see a little, a little bit more process like, you know, structure and yeah, we just sort of worked with like, obviously, yeah.

My husband, he built, you know, our planter and modified a lot of equipment to do it.

And then we were able to use like the local agronomists and things to help nut out, you know, other bits and pieces along the way.

Yeah, fabulous.

And what about pest management?

How do you do they?

Are they prone to disease or they're quite happy where they are?

We didn't.

Off the top of my head, I don't think we had any disease issues last year.

We had a pretty good, you know, winter.

It wasn't too wet or anything, so there was no fungicides or anything.

We do because we're growing on such a large scale.

The pest management towards the end of the season is where, yeah, we sort of hopefully can do a bit more work this year.

So because we grow on such a large scale and it is surrounded by, you know, cereal crops because it's on a farming property, we do have to manage our pests by pesticides large scale.

And also because that's how, yeah, the cropping around us is also managed so.

Yeah.

That's how we.

Yeah, yeah.

Fabulous.

So is there anything that you wanted to share that you've really loved along the way that you've learned that you think could be helpful for other people?

Oh gosh, this is the hard one.

You really call me your God?

I think that it's just an evolving process and I think that's yeah, it's not something like I went in with a plan of being able to grow.

You know, I was like, I'm going to grow daily as they're going to be fantastic and, you know, climate doesn't really like them.

So just being able to pivot and evolve and change.

Yeah, the the way the business is going and, you know, being able to grow what's super Dick here?

Yeah, not necessarily.

You know, I'd love to grow dahlias and things, but yeah, just being able to grow what really suits our business and being able to pivot.

Yeah, I love that.

I think that's such a good thing to pass on to other people is like looking at your climate and where you are and what suits instead of trying to fight against it and grow something that's not necessarily perfect for there because there's plenty of dahlia growers, you know?

Like, I just love that you're growing something that's native to Australia too.

I think that's so beautiful.

I hope that I get to come and see it in flower like when I'm like, can you keep everything there until October please?

October the 18th when I'm coming up to the Garden show just for me.

That'll be great.

It might be just a sea of white by there.

That's OK, I don't mind a sea of white.

So if you had to leave the farm really quickly, what three things would you take with you?

Oh my family, my 2 little girls.

Oh yeah, husband.

That's that's a given.

My new attachment is my Lusaka gardening belt.

OK, great.

Yeah, they're really handy, aren't they?

But apart from that, yeah, they're probably everything can be replaced.

That's true, I know, but it's fun to take stuff.

That's probably bad, you know, at the moment, I think, yeah.

Yeah.

That's like one must have in the garden.

OK.

Do you have a favorite tool or is it the LASAT tool belt?

I actually have a Japanese wedding horror.

I think that's a.

Hurry, hurry.

Nice.

No, it's a different 1 and it came from Gin Gin Garden Club and it's a really cool little toy tool.

I was about to say toy.

Really cool.

Cool.

It's just easy to dig out your weeds without, yeah, pulling them.

Awesome.

And where do you see yourself in like, let's say five years?

Oh, hopefully it's still growing flour.

And I hope that, yeah, maybe we'll be able to share these seeds, you know, with a lot more communities.

Yeah, hopefully through, yeah, you know, fundraising packs and things and help, yeah, raise some, you know, funds through flowers for, yeah, regional or city communities.

Yeah, awesome.

So again, let's just go over like where people can find those fundraising packets and also like where like forests could maybe get in touch with you for dried flowers.

Is it just all through your website, Tesla and Bo?

Flowers on their website or via, yeah, Instagram or Facebook, but on the website, yeah, we've got like a florist page there where they can contact us.

Yeah, in regards to dried flowers and also seeds.

Thank you so much for sharing your story.

I love it.

I can't wait to see some more photos of your farm folion flower this season.

I can't believe it's going to be 4 hectares.

That blows my mind.

I really want to put that into like, city like size.

I wonder how many blocks that would be.

Yeah.

What do you think?

I wouldn't be a full block, that would.

Definitely be a full block.

Yeah.

I don't know.

Anyway, I'm going to figure that out and I'm going to put it into the outro of this episode because I feel like it's quite hard when you're not a farmer to understand hectares, I think.

Or you know, like visually it helps to have something to put it against.

But anyway, I digress.

Thank you so much for taking the time out to chat to me.

It's lovely to see you again and I'm yeah, hopefully see you at the Flower Show or at the gardening thing in October.

Yes, I look forward to October.

I hope you enjoyed this conversation with Emily as much as I did.

Her story is such a beautiful reminder that flower farming doesn't have to look one way.

It can start small, grow slowly, and still have a big impact both within a community and far beyond it.

Her sprawling paper Daisy fields in Kanambo to the way she's supporting schools and fundraising efforts across the country.

Emily is helping more people experience the joy and value of locally grown flowers, and I really think that's something truly worth celebrating.

A huge thank you to Emily for sharing her time, her insights and her generous heart with all of us.

If this episode resonated with you, please consider leaving a review, sharing it with a friend, or posting a little love online.

It helps us spread the message even further.

And as always, thank you for being here, for listening, and for supporting Australian flower farmers.

Until next time, keep being blooming fabulous.