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Janae Paquin-Bowden says her journey to becoming a flower farmer all started on her first date with her now husband Chris.
‘We bonded over our love of River Cottage,’ she says, referring to the British TV series where celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall established a 100-acre farm by the same name.
The couple both had a dream of owning a small landholding where they could create their own version of this: a beautiful, self-sufficient and productive block. Then in 2013, they bought an eight-acre property in Lyonville, located in the heart of the Macedon Ranges.
‘It was just a paddock with a fence, an electricity box, and a dam with large pine trees along the front fence,’ Janae says.
But it wasn’t until a few years later when Janae was on maternity leave from her job teaching French that the vision for Fleurs de Lyonville really began taking shape.
While at home with the couple’s children, she started growing more and more flowers in patches around their house, wherever she could reach while still keeping an eye on her little ones.
They started selling them at local markets to huge demand, and before long, Chris left his assistant principal job to work together on what has since become a thriving micro-flower farm business.
While the garden was planted very organically out of necessity at the time, its sprawling areas have made the experience of touring the garden more exciting, as visitors wander through the garden beds. Plus, it’s also been advantageous to help create a ‘balanced’ ecosystem with less pests and more birdlife. The rest was born out of passion and plenty of trial and error.
‘Neither of us had any formal training, and didn’t grow up in this region, so at first, we really didn’t know what plants survive in this climate,’ Janae adds.
A sea of organically grown flowers now makes up about two acres of their landscape, featuring with cottage-blooms, hardy-annuals and any natives that can handle the region’s frosty weather. The couple have a particular penchant for dahlias, with more than 2000 planted.
‘We would have around 60-70 different varieties at the moment at least, and although every year we try not to buy any more new varieties — we can’t help it!’
A potager garden rounds out the family’s enchanting property, where the couple and their kid’s enjoy growing their own supply of fruit and vegetables all year around.
‘I love seeing the veggies coming on and it’s right outside the main passage of the house, so as we come and go, we get to see what we can pick for dinner that night. It is so simple, but going out and picking herbs for dinner is such a satisfying ritual,’ she adds.
In addition to supplying their beautiful blooms throughout the region September all the way to May, Fleurs de Lyonville offers flower farm tours and workshops, including a dahlia masterclass coming up in August.
