The women planting the seeds of a flower farm movement

Wanita Sparr and Dale McDonnell are converting their land into a flower farm. (ABC News: Yasmine Wright Gittins) Link copiedShareShare articleOn a former crop-dusting airstrip in tropical north Queensland rows of flowers bloom where chemicals for the region's vegetable farms were once loaded onto planes. "It's quite the turnaround," Bowen flower grower Wanita Sparr said. "Going from an operation that used to effectively spray pesticides and herbicides to being a flower farm where we're chemical free." Wanita Sparr grows flowers near Bowen. (ABC News: Yasmine Wright Gittins) Ms Sparr started growing flowers after buying a 120-hectare property near Bowen with her husband, Dale McDonnell. This year they planted thousands of flowers, from cosmos and zinnias to celosia and gomphrena, and quickly found strong demand for local blooms. The flower farm at Bowen grows on a decommissioned cropping airstrip. (ABC News: Yasmine Wright Gittins) "I thought people wouldn't like flowers because it's a luxury," Mr McDonnell said. "But I was very wrong because as soon as we had flowers, there was people jumping to get them." Wanita Sparr says she finds flower growing rewarding. (ABC News: Yasmine Wright Gittins) In the 2025 financial year, these smaller farms, with an annual turnover of less than $200,000, made up half of all nursery and floriculture businesses in Queensland, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. But despite increasing demand for local blooms, growers said turning flowers into a viable business was not always straightforward. Sonia Gaden produces hundreds of varieties of flowers in her backyard farm. (ABC News: Yasmine Wright Gittins) One of the biggest challenges was determining the retail value of the flowers, Ms Sparr explained. Like many small growers, she sells flowers through subscriptions, direct sales and local florists. "We can't compete with big, massive growers who grow on a huge scale because they have years of infrastructure and resources, whereas I'm starting from the very beginning." In an effort to address the issue, advocacy group The Flower Summit is developing a national pricing guide with input from industry stakeholders. "For so many years growers and floral designers have never been able to price with confidence and clarity, and they have been undervalued for so long," Flower Summit founder Jessica Eckford-Aguilera said. The group, with more than 150 members across the country, plans to launch the Australian grower-led flower pricing guide in September. Jessica Eckford-Aguilera has worked in the flower industry for more than 20 years. (Supplied) Ms Eckford-Aguilera said it was designed to give women in the industry a reference point for fair pricing, something growers like Ms Sparr welcomed. "[A guide] makes it a lot easier," she said. Flower Industry Australia, the representative body for the industry, was contacted for comment. Ms Sparr is among a growing cohort of women establishing small-scale flower farms across regional Australia. Ciara Greatz's micro flower farm is in Hydeaway Bay. (ABC News: Yasmine Wright Gittins) Ms Eckford-Aguilera said women often developed farms alongside or after careers in other sectors. "Women in their late 30s and upwards are coming out of the corporate world and going, 'It's time to invest in myself and do something that I love,'" she said. Five years ago, North Mackay grower Sonia Gaden left her career as an occupational therapist (OT) to focus on flowers. Sonia Gaden has a micro flower farm in suburban Mackay. (ABC News: Yasmine Wright Gittins) "I made the very hard decision to hang up my OT boots and put on my gardening boots full-time," Ms Gaden said. Today, she grows more than 100 varieties of flowers on her suburban block and sells about 30 bunches each week at local markets. "Just the joy of gardening and being around flowers and the flexibility that it gave me and my family was something that I had to follow," she said. Sonia Gaden's operation in North Mackay. (ABC News: Yasmine Wright Gittins) About two hours away at Hydeaway Bay in the Whitsundays, Ciara Greatz began growing flowers after the birth of her children. Ciara Greatz and her golden labrador Kitsch. (ABC News: Yasmine Wright Gittins) "I sort of felt a bit lost and I didn't really know what to do with my time," she said. "I wanted to grow something that I could put out to the community but wanted something that was different." Ciara Greatz grows a wide variety of flowers on her micro farm. (ABC News: Yasmine Wright Gittins) What started as an experiment has become a business with a chemical-free approach to production. "I just don't have enough flowers to keep up with the demand at the moment," she said. Back on her flower patch outside Bowen, Ms Sparr hopes her farm will eventually expand enough to replace her full-time work in administration. Wanita Sparr keeps bees, making a chemical-free approach essential. (ABC News: Yasmine W

The women planting the seeds of a flower farm movement

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