Golden hope from Ellinbank hills
Under gloomy skies, the Blyth family’s daffodil farm on the Ellinbank hills stands out like a beacon, visible from kilometres away.
For about six weeks of the year, drivers approaching Warragul from the south have an armchair view of paddocks filled with this glorious harbinger of spring.
On Daffodil Day, last Friday, volunteers all over Australia sold daffodils and daffodil themed merchandise to raise funds for the Cancer Council.
The great bulk of those flowers came from Blyths, which supplies the Cancer Council and most of the country’s florists and supermarkets.
The daffodil business began in 1948 when Dan Blyth, a Boronia carpenter, was working in the city. He used to take a couple of armloads of daffodils with him each day to sell.
He built up the business gradually over the years until his son John and his wife Robin came into it.
Now John and Robin’s sons Nick, David and Peter run the business with their parents.
Nick Blyth says the range of flowers available to florists in winter is limited so they’re very happy when the daffodil season begins.
The icy, wet, windy weather of the past few weeks has had surprisingly little impact on the flowers because they only open fully after they are picked.
At the peak of the season, from late July to late August, the flowers are picked seven days a week. During the shoulder season, which will run until the end of September, it might be three or four days a week.
The picking is done by Cambodian crews. “It’s difficult work” Nick explains. “You’re working in all weather. It’s cold and it can be wet. There are easier jobs.”
Locals sort the flowers before they are trucked out to markets in Melbourne (Epping), Sydney and Brisbane. They eventually end up in supermarkets all over Australia.
The Blyths have about 40 hectares of daffodils on which they grow about 30 or 40 varieties for their flowers and perhaps double that for the bulbs, which go on sale in summer.
Nick Blyth says there used to be a lot of small daffodil farms but Blyths is about the only one left in Australia
“The original growers have retired and the children haven’t wanted to continue. The flower industry is harder these days because of all the cheap imports.
So will there be a fourth generation of Blyths joining the daffodil business?
“That’s yet to be seen,” Nick says. “They’re all young children.”