Jacquie’s love of gardening and Joe’s fertiliser knowledge was the perfect combination to create The Wright Flower Farm. The pair and their daughter Fionna shared the history of the business with Caitlyn Morgan. Pictures: Louise Barker
IF you love flowers then walking into a hothouse at The Wright Flower Farm feels a little bit like heaven.
There are flowers in every direction, all different shades of colours and no two are the same.
Despite visiting the hothouses almost every day for seven years, Fionna Wright says the view of the flowers never tires.
“I spend at least an hour a day just taking photos of them all, I never get sick of them,” she says.
“Every day I have a new favourite colour and flower.”
After 17 years working as a fertiliser sales representative, Joe and his wife Jacquie Wright made the life-changing decision to work for themselves.
The business has grown from one small bed of flowers to nine hothouses, with plans in place to add two more by April this year.
“We played around and did a lot of experimenting with what we could grow here in summer,” Joe says.
“We experimented with various flowers. You name it, we tried to grow it.
“We found lisianthus worked the best so we moved onto two little beds. We planted them up and they were very, very successful.”
Joe puts their flower success down to their secret blend of soil.
“After making our own blend the flowers have just taken off,” he says.
“The way we do everything now is a lot better then what we started off doing but we are still learning.
“Flowers are funny, they will do what they want to do. No matter what you do they will only flower when they are ready.”
During summer the hothouses are filled with lisianthus and during winter they are filled with stocks, snapdragons and ranunculus.
“If you want quality flowers, you have to grow them under plastic,” Joe said.
“We are very critical of our flowers, we want to supply the best and will often throw out flowers that others would sell.”
Joe says there are a number of reasons the family decided lisianthus were going to be the chosen flower to grow in summer.
“Lisianthus come in an array of colour and last well in a vase,” he says.
“The prettier and brighter they are the more attracted people are to them, which is another reason why lisianthus were a good fit.”
The Wright family flowers can often be found at the Sunraysia Farmers Market and are sold to many local florists.
While they are not open to the public, this is something Joe would like to do in the future.
“It would be great to one day be open for the public to tour,” he says.
