Dave Pavlou and Kodi Graham have stepped into the world of growing, picking and tending to natives for the domestic cut flower market and couldn’t be happier as SOPHIE BALDWIN writes.
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Kodi Graham and Dave Pavlou are living their best life, albeit in a completely different side of an industry they have spent years working in.
As city-based florists, the couple is now happily entrenched at Sandy Hill Banksia Farm, a 2.8 hectare farm east of Cobram, in northern Victoria.
Rather than living in the fast pace of the city, the Kodi and Dave now spend their working week tending, propagating, picking and growing a collection of banksias along with other natives, for the domestic cut flower market.
“When the opportunity to come and live on the farm presented itself to us, we decided we would be crazy not to take it up and learn and grow from it,” Kodi said.
Flowers have always been a part of Kodi’s world — a love that was nurtured in her mum’s garden while Dave followed in the family’s flower wholesale footsteps, working with his dad and brother Michael.
Michael runs a couple of florists in Melbourne, one of which specialises in native flowers — and he purchased Sandy Hill when the couple who previously owned it said they were going to sell.
“Michael didn’t want to risk losing the banksia supply so he bought the property and Kodi and I have been running it together for the last 18 months,” Dave said.
The couple’s different skill sets, Kodi in design and Dave in germination and propagating, complement each other, and have been a key to their early success, along with a willingness to jump in and just have a go.
The undulating, sandy soils at Cobram are perfect for growing natives.
The banksias, some of which are decades old, are thriving among wattles, gums and other trees and shrubs, it is a bit of a mish mash, but the couple wouldn’t have it any other way.
There is always something flowering most times of the year, however the peak production period for the banksias is January through to July.
As a cut flower, the banksia is a popular bloom.
“Banksias attracts a premium price because of their long vase life and we are seeing consumers wanting to buy local blooms and shop with their values too,” Kodi said.
All the flowers at Sandy Hill are hand-picked by the couple at the start of the working week and then sent to Melbourne every Wednesday. The rest of the week is spent tending the property, mowing, pruning, weeding and watering if required.
While the younger trees are irrigated until they are established, the bulk of the trees hardly require any watering at all.
“We spend a fair bit of time germinating seed and propagating some of the rarer plants so we can keep them going in the future and a lot of time cutting down trees – banksias drop limbs like crazy and we do lose trees quite often,” Dave said.
While the farm is not classified organic, the couple hasen’t used a chemical since they arrived, preferring to mow and chip weeds rather than spray.
The biggest threat to the blooms themselves is the banksia moth which causes die back, but so far Sandy Hill has remained free of the pest.
The property was not originally set up for a commercial business and as a consequence some jobs do take a bit longer than they should.
“This place was originally set up as a collector’s garden, so it is a bit quirky and has a certain romance to it, which makes it more like a large country garden,” Kodi said.
“There are no neat and tidy rows and plantings are a bit all over the place, and because some of the trees are so old and big, we do have to use a cherry picker to harvest flowers, but it all sort of adds to the charm.”
The couple credit the generosity of the previous owners who shared their knowledge as the key to making the transition so seamless, while close neighbours have also been very helpful and keen to help out when they have a question.
“We know cut flowers, but neither one of us had a background in native flower production, so it has been a brave new world for us both,” Kodi said.
As a result of the perfect climate, the blooms are of a superior quality and free of the pests and diseases that are more commonly found in Western Australian grown varieties.
A banksia specialist recently toured the farm and was impressed with the health of the trees and the species he saw.
“We do have some trees that are quite rare growing here including the bronze menzies which is a favourite of ours and a variety he had never seen before, while the possum banksia is not super rare but a beautiful short stemmed variety that we also love,” Dave said.
Dave said it was interesting to hear how pest and diseases were decimating the western Australian banksia industry and how there was a push to get the trees out into gardens right across the country.
Kodi said it was a nice change to be working with flowers that weren’t covered in chemicals.
“A lot of my previous floristry work was with imported flowers, and they were always sprayed to the heavens, I am really happy to get away from that and just work with something straight from nature,” she said.
The couple has embraced the slower pace of life in the country and while Kodi said she was overwhelmed at the start; she has grown to love the peace and quiet of the farm.
In August the couple will open their farm up for a tour as part of the 10th Australian Wildflower Conference.
The industry conference and trade expo will be held at Echuca-Moama on Friday, August 18 with farm tours commencing in Mount Gambier August 16.
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