The blooming backyard business plan
A novice gardener's flower growing efforts have bloomed into a home-based business.
Jackie Hunter wasn't a gardener when she began growing flowers to fill the vases around her house. She was thrilled to discover she had a knack for it. "I went a bit overboard and ended up with so many flowers, I gave them away to friends and family. People loved them." She wasn't a florist either. "I began to think I could do this as a small business. I'd been looking for something I could do while the children were at school and this seemed to fit perfectly."
She discovered Cut Flower Garden, written by American florist-farmer, Erin Benzakein. Erin's blog about how to run a floristry business inspired Jackie to launch Backyard Blooms.
Finding enough space to create flowerbeds in her country garden wasn't a problem. Finding the best place to grow them was more problematic on her coastal property. Jackie decided on an area behind her house that was flat enough to cultivate easily, where a plantation of pine trees provided protection from the westerly winds.
"I began to think I could do this as a small business... it seemed to fit perfectly."
A small excavator cleared a 0.3ha (¾ acre) area. A tractor was used to cultivate the soil and Jackie added a generous layer of mushroom compost and seaweed, then covered it with weed cloth. She cut holes for each plant.
The first season, she grew a variety of English cottage garden flowers: anemones, ranunculus, snapdragons, cosmos, ornamental carrot, scabiosa, delphiniums and dahlias. They did well and remain some of her firm favourites.
She raises her bulk seedlings in a large bed. Perennials such as delphiniums, astrantia and yarrow are covered with straw during winter.
Porangahau has a dry summer climate and a mix of soils; clay in some areas, others fertile and free-draining. The bane of Jackie's life is the strong westerly wind. “The upside is being on the coast where it's frost-free. I can pretty much make anything work here."
That includes peonies, which need winter chill to grow, but it never gets cold enough in Jackie's garden. That doesn't deter her.
"I fill ice-cream containers with water and dump ice
around the plants to imitate the frost."
Last year, mice and birds demolished sweetpeas growing along a 2.1-metre fence. This year she raised them in containers and transplanted them.
"I love it when the plants emerge, it's a reward for the long hours I spend in the garden."
Jackie buys her seeds from a variety of sources, including Kings Seeds in Katikati and Chilterns in the United Kingdom.
“They had a few varieties I hadn't come across here.
“Now I've discovered other farmer florists doing what I do, and we tend to swap seeds. We also have a Facebook page, and soon we'll meet for a conference. It's nice when you get like-minded people together and can share ideas."
Jackie is an instinctive florist, entirely self-taught. She describes her floral bouquets as "a little bit wild and abundant."
She favours a natural-looking posy rather than one that is too contrived. She says she's still learning and experimenting with different combinations, like adding oregano, mint, sage, fennel, basil, and leaves of gum and bay.
She's also making wedding bouquets. For a winter theme, she used manuka and kanuka foraged from the farm, along with hellebores, seedpods, roses and chrysanthemums. “The hardest thing is fulfilling the demand through winter. Everything is grown outside, in season and you can't force things. Next year I'll grow colder-loving plants such as hellebores, Pieris japonica, ericas, proteas and calendulas so that I can supply flowers year-round."
Jackie originally came to New Zealand on an extended working holiday in 2003, keen to check out horse events.
"I've always loved horses; I used to work at a local riding school on a Saturday so that I could get a ride in the afternoon."
"I love it when the plants emerge, it's a reward for the long hours."
By accident, she discovered a thriving polo scene at Porangahau, and met a keen polo player named Scott Hunter. Love blossomed, and they were married in 2008. They now have three children: Eve, 9, and 7-year old twins Hazel and William.
“I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. I could happily potter around here, day in and day out. In fact, it's a mission to go to town, sometimes. I wouldn't change it for the world."
Jackie says her family is very supportive of her cut-flower business and her children like to get in on the act too.
"The girls love picking the flowers, and William is good at helping with the bigger tasks such as shovelling compost and pushing the wheelbarrow.
“Scott helps with the heavy lifting and is good at the big ideas. Being a typical farmer, he's efficient. I tend to know what I want to do but have no idea how to achieve it. I'll say, ‘I'd like a little area made here' and come back and find he's dug an area 10 times the size of what I imagined."
Jackie's parents, Wendy and Bernard Hinde, moved to New Zealand in 2004. Her father has built her a wooden stand to display her bouquets at a local cafe, and a small glass house.