Not much beats being completely encased in a garden full of vibrant, colourful flowers and beautiful scents … particularly when you get to take armfuls of them home with you.
We recently immersed ourselves in nature’s beauty during a flower picking adventure at Fig Tree Farm in Hillcrest, and wow … wow… wow … what a blissful and rewarding experience it was!
Armed with empty buckets and floral snips, we wandered through gorgeous flower fields with manager Jax Moynihan, and were greeted by the most prolific display of summer blooms – dahlias, zinnias, roses, hydrangeas, sunflowers, craspedias, celeosias, amaranthus, lace and geums – swaying gently in the wind. The sight, combined with the floral scents, created a truly hypnotic time.
Chatting to Jax, we were told that The Flower Garden was started as a passion project, born out of community interest. The irony is that Jax has never been much of a green thumb when it comes to gardening.
“I am neither a florist, a horticulturist or a farmer. I am totally self-taught. Flowers were something I loved looking at and besides knowing what roses, sunflowers and orchids were, my knowledge stopped there.”
After numerous requests from Fig Tree visitors wanting to know if they could buy the flowers growing on the farm, Jax opened The Flower Shop.
“I was out of my depth the first time I went to the fresh flower market to buy stock. But once the shop was thriving, I ploughed through books to learn as much as I could and did a lot of research on cut flower gardens. This is when I found my passion for flowers and decided that I wanted to grow a garden that was organic and could offer the opportunity for people to come and cut their own.”
Because of Durban’s fickle climate, Jax investigated what would grow well in Hillcrest during our mild Winters and hot, humid Summers. She reached out to non-commercial flower growers in the US who were happy to help her, and to a friend in Underberg who specialises in growing Peonies.
“In 2023 we started The Flower Garden and there was a lot of trial and error. But we worked our way through what works and what doesn’t for us.”
Stemming from this labour of love is a living canvas that changes with the seasons. The garden is ideal for flower enthusiasts, photographers looking for the perfect shot, special group occasions or simply for those needing a tranquil day out in nature, amidst the butterflies and bees.
As the seasons progress, the varieties of flowers available for cutting shift, offering new and exciting options each time the garden is visited. Jax says that for April and May, dahlias, zinnias, sunflowers, roses and golden rods will be blooming in cheery colours.
“As our Winters are mild, we are fortunate that we can take some of the Summer seasonal flowers through to autumn and the early Winter months. Thereafter we will have Bells of Ireland, stocks, strawflowers, tuber roses, hollyhocks, ranunculus, anemones, baby’s breath, bachelor buttons, feverfews and delphiniums.”
Cut flowers tailored to a flower farm are grown very differently to garden flowers. They are planted very close together so that the stems are longer, and Jax says, at the moment, they have about 10 000 flowers of different varieties.
“Around 90 per cent of our flowers are under automated irrigation so there is very little hand watering needed.”
Still, for Jax and her three-strong team, there is a great deal of work to be done every day.
“To give you an idea of our season cycle and what goes into nurturing the picking flowers from March to May, we start germinating all the Autumn/Winter flowers in the germination shed. “In some cases, we do succession germination in three-week cycles, so that we have a constant supply of that particular flower throughout the season. While the germination cycle is happening, we start removing all the Spring/Summer flowers and prep the beds for the seedlings, bar the hydrangeas which stay in the ground, and the Dahlias which we leave until the next season. Then we remove and divide the tubers to create more for the next planting season.”
After six weeks, the team plant the seedlings which can take between 90 and 120 days to fully bloom.
“Once seedlings are in the ground, we are on a permanent watch for diseases and insects. Different flowers need different processes – some need to be pinched at a certain height, others need netting and there are those that need deadheading to produce more blooms.”
Jax says once the flowers are established, the team must fertilise, and only organic products are used in the garden.
“For powdery mildew we use a mixture of full cream milk and water and we are working towards improving our soil quality, so that the good bugs will outdo the baddies, and we will have a healthy ecosystem.”
For the Spring/Summer season, the process starts all over again with germination in August. In between seasons there is a six-week period when the garden is closed. This is to allow for new flowers to grow.
Tended to with such love and care, The Flower Garden is literally a place where kindness blooms. No matter the weather – and it was sweltering when we were there – the flower picking experience brings people closer to nature. As Jax says, it grounds people and offers a healing and fun experience. For us, it really was pure zen.
Booking is essential to ensure everyone has their own time and space to enjoy the garden. A flower picking experience costs R400 a person, and you’ll get a bucket to take home, filled with your own cut blooms.
Details: To book, e-mail flowergarden@figtreefarm.co.za.
