Farm Journal

sTAY UP TO DATE WITH WHAT's HAPPENING

Welcome! We're so pleased to have you here!

Hi, my name is Lorelie Merton and I'm a small scale flower farmer.Together with the help of my family we grow specialty cut flowers here at Florelie Seasonal Flowers in Bungaree, Victoria, Australia.

I hope you enjoy reading what I've shared here in my farm journal. I've decided to organise things into the following main categories for ease of finding what you are most interested in:
- education (e.g. dahlia virus)
- flower feature (e.g. sweet peas)
- farm life (e.g. planting)
- guest gardens (e.g. other flower farms)

I would LOVE if you took the time to leave me a comment. Maybe you learnt something new, appreciated something I shared or have a question about what I wrote? Please let me know so that I can improve the content available for you. Maybe you even have a suggestion for a future blog topic - I'm always open to suggestions!

Thank you for following along with our farm and for supporting locally grown flowers. I hope you enjoy exploring our website and getting to know more about our family and our farm.

Lorelie

Dahlia colour comparison – Yellow tones

A colour comparison of yellow dahlias grown at Florelie Seasonal...

Lorelie / FlorelieAugust 1, 2020

Dahlia colour comparison – Purple and Pink

A colour comparison of pink and purple dahlias grown at...

Lorelie / FlorelieJuly 27, 2020

Dahlia colour comparison – Blush

A colour comparison of white and blush dahlias grown at...

Lorelie / FlorelieJuly 12, 2020

Dahlia colour comparison – Burgundy

A colour comparison of burgundy dahlias grown at Florelie Seasonal...

Lorelie / FlorelieJuly 12, 2020

Services

Cut Flowers

Flowers direct to florists and to the public.
Mixed bunches, straight bunches or bulk buckets available

Plant Sales

We currently offer a range of dahlia tubers and sweet pea seeds for sale. Please check out our shop for the latest availability

Farm visits

Stay tuned for opportunities to visit the farm or participate in workshops using our gorgeous blooms in the future

Instagram

florelieseasonalflowers

🌱Microfarm - cut flowers
🌸 Wholesale & to public.
👰🏻 Bulk flowers for DIY events
🌼 Dahlia grower #dahliabreeding
#ballaratbusiness
#Bungaree, Vic

The watermelon/coral tones have been some of my ab

The watermelon/coral tones have been some of my absolute favourites this season. Which colours have you enjoyed most?
I really do want to know as it helps me with planning what to plant, what goals I have for dahlia breeding and what I ultimately offer to you as tubers in the future so please let me know! 😁
Pictures here:
- Carlos /Buckajo watermelon
- Coorabell moonglow
- salmon joy
- a watermelon toned new seedling (@sam_and_wild_violet_garden seed)
- Formby quest
#florelie #dahliasinaustralia

Another first year seedling I wanted to share with

Another first year seedling I wanted to share with you all 😍 such a beautiful colour with those cute gold tipped petals.
If you swipe through you can see it in a bucket, it looks more dusty compared to the other flowers and the last photo is of an older flower - you can see how it retains its colour pretty well and still keeps a tighter center. All good characteristics for a cut flower variety.
So now to dig and divide those tubers and keep growing it for another 2 years to see how it performs and if it will be a keeper 🌱
So some of the characteristics I’m looking for in seedlings are:
- good stems for cutting (long, strong)
- good flower form. I like lots of petals and a tight center which doesn’t show the pollen
- good plant habit. We don’t stake, so the plant needs to be able to support itself. I also don’t like if they’re too short
- productivity. I like a plant which isn’t too stingy with its flowers. This is too hard to evaluate with a single plant so it’s not until year 2-3 when I’m growing more of them that this becomes clearer.
- unusual colour. I really love finding something that is new or a colour which catches my eye although the colour is less of an issue for me in deciding to keep a plant.
So these are some of the things I’m considering when looking at my seedlings.
What things are most important to you in a dahlia?
#florelie #dahliafarm #dahliabreeding #australianflowerfarm #flowerfarmaustralia

I honestly expected that our season would be broug

I honestly expected that our season would be brought to an end by a frost... it looks like the wind will beat it though. I think the frost will likely come on Saturday... ? We’ll see...
The wind here today has been absolutely brutal. Wind can cause a lot of damage by rubbing the flowers against other parts of the plant, snapping stems and even causing plants to be knocked down completely. We’ve had a bit of everything here today. 😩
On a small farm like ours I’m estimating numbers for orders with little margin and a weather event like this really throws that out. I’m so sorry to the florists who had orders I’ve had to cancel this week.
I’m so grateful for everyone who has supported our farm throughout the cut flower season - buying flowers, supporting the florists we supply as well as following and supporting us on social media. None of this is possible without your support.
Here’s a bucket of loveliness from earlier this week containing:
- florelie Oracle (have you figured out it’s one of my favourites yet? 😍)
- Glenmarc divine
And that new seedling from the previous post you’ve all convinced me to offer for tuber sales this year. The people have spoken! 😉 😂 now I’ll need to think of a name for it.
#florelie #dahliasofinstagram

I’m pleased that we didn’t get a frost this mo

I’m pleased that we didn’t get a frost this morning and that I get to enjoy the dahlias for a bit longer 😁
This lovely lady is a third year seedling so is technically old enough to release this year. It consistently produces these lovely pale pink blooms each year. The problem is that it is a bit later to start and is no where near as productive as my other varieties.
I’m not really sure what to do to be honest. Do I grow it again another year? Do I release it anyway? Do I throw them to the sheep to eat?
It pains me to think of digging them up and throwing them away when the flowers are so lovely... but I also know it doesn’t hold up as a commercial cutting variety as it isn’t productive enough... does that matter to you?
What do you think I should do? Do you want me to sell tubers this year?
#florelie #dahliabreeding #dahliaseedling #growdahlias #dahliasinaustralia

This weekend has been cold but no frost so far. Th

This weekend has been cold but no frost so far. There’s still a risk for tomorrow morning but looks like the wind might pick up enough at just the right time to save the dahlias again. 🤞
There are quite a lot of flowers on the plants at the moment and I’ve still got orders in the calendar I’m hoping to fill. Every frost-free day is appreciated. 🙂 it would be amazing if we could make it through until Mother’s Day but we usually get a season ending frost sometime in April.
If we get through tomorrow I’ll have extra flowers available this week for bunches! 💐
This beautiful bucket is full of:
- Florelie Harmony
- Florelie Kindness
- Coorabell Moonglow
#florelie #flowerfarm

A cute little pink seedling from the dahlia patch

A cute little pink seedling from the dahlia patch this year.
It’s hard to believe it’s almost the end of the season. We have frost risk this weekend and Monday morning is looking risky... you never know though, if we get some rain or wind at the right time we might escape it. 🤷🏻‍♀️
It’s been an incredible season though and each year is busier than the last since I first started this as a side hustle 4 years ago. It amazes me to see how much we have grown. I’m so grateful for the community I have found here of other flower lovers to share the journey with. Thanks for being part of it.
Can I ask... is there something you’d like to see us doing in the future? I’d be curious to know. Do you wish we offered workshops? Or sold seeds as well? Or something else entirely?
My brain is buzzing with a few ideas at the moment so I won’t mind some added thoughts to mull over... 😉
#florelie #flowerfarm #visitballarat #countryvic #countryvictoria #ruralliving #countrylife #lifeonthefarm #entrepreneurlife #entrepreneurmindset #pinkflower #pinkdahlia #forgardeners #gardeninginaustralia #gardeninglife #gardeninginvictoria #victoria #dahliasocietyofvictoria #dahliasinaustralia #dahliaseason

My favourite pink variety this season has been Flo

My favourite pink variety this season has been Florelie Oracle. 💗
This one will be a new release from our farm this year for tuber sales and I’m excited to be sharing it with you. The colour varies a bit over the season from a more saturated pink, to dusty pink and then has a cooler tint to it later in the season too. I’ve included some photos of it at various times throughout the season.
Pink is one of the top selling colours on our farm and I definitely need to plant more for next year. I had 102 plants of this variety and it was still not enough 😍
Look at those cute gold tips too! Are you a pink lover?
Credit for the 3rd photo goes to Ellen @b.o.t.a.n.y
#florelie #floreliedahlias #pinkdahlia #dahliasinaustralia #australiandahlias #dahliafarm #dahliasocietyofvictoria #flowerfarmer #flowerfarm

When your husband mows the grass between your rows

When your husband mows the grass between your rows 😍
#florelie #dahliaseason #growdahlias #flowerfarmaustralia #dahliafever #dahliasofinstagram #dahliafarm #dahlialove #dahliaaddict #dahliagarden #dahliaflowers #growdahlias #flowerfarmer #countryvic #thehappygardeninglife #happygardener #happygardeners #gardeningaustralia #gardeninglife #ballaratgarden

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