Hello, I’m Erin 🌸
🌷Mum of 2 little loves, living a full and busy life in Illowa, South West Victoria.
🌷 I’m a flower farmer. I grow seasonal, colourful flowers between September-April for my local community and florists.
🌷I love colour (the brighter the better), dancing in the kitchen, and being out in the garden with my hands in the dirt, planting seedlings and harvesting fresh flower bunches.
🌷Flowers are hereditary. My Grandma grew the most beautiful roses, dahlias, ranunculus, pansies and chrysanthemums and I feel so connected to that.
🌷Right now, we’re building something really special...a new greenhouse, more flower beds, and a space we hope to share with you soon.
It brings me so much joy to share my flowers with you. Thank you for being part of what I'm growing and creating!
📸 Fabulous photos captured by the clever creative @sageandseaside_photography
COSMOS ~ Sensation Purity White.
The prettiest crisp white, daisy-like blooms, soft and floaty. One of my absolute favourite flowers to grow. You can start seedlings or direct sow. I pinched her out early and she’s rewarding me with stronger stems and armfuls of flowers.
Seed from @veggieandflowergardenseeds 🌼
Delivered to @flowertrailwarrnambool 🤍
GROW COSMOS & thank me later.
SCABIOSA.
pincushion flower.
One of my favourite flowers.
Wiggly, bobbly heads held on slender, twirly stems that dance in the breeze.
These were grown last season, and after flowering they dropped their seeds. This season they surprised me by self-sowing into another flower row. Mother nature with her wild generosity. I adore her for that.
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Erin ~ Fermanagh Florals
The dahlias are done… but we’re not.
Our last bunch was harvested three weeks ago,
and the farm has been in that quiet pause ever since.
Seedlings, corms and bulbs are going in.
Plans for spring are already taking shape.
New bunches coming.
🌷
This might be a flower I don’t grow again….for now.
Lisianthus.
I trial a lot of cut flower varieties before committing to a full crop, and this season I purchased a small amount of plugs to test. I planted them in late November.
Negatives:
• We had multiple heat spikes throughout December (above 22°C)
• Some plants hadn’t established strong root systems before the heat stress and this led to some plants rosetting and slowed growth.
• A few plants browned and died quickly and I should have watered more frequently during those hot periods.
• Interestingly, not all plants rosetted like I expected. The majority still grew and eventually flowered in Late April/Early May — almost 6 months from planting.
Positives:
• I planted tightly (10cm x 10cm spacing) and this spacing produced beautiful long stems around 60–70cm.
• I supported them using metal trelissing assisting with taller stems.
Biggest lesson:
• Timing matters. I’d plant much earlier in Late Winter (August) to Mid Spring (October) to avoid early heat stress.
They are absolutely beautiful!!
Pictured: Corelli 3 Peach & Corelli 3 Apricot
Soft bouquet moments for Chelsea and her bridesmaids.
I loved incorporating my Glenbank Little Angel dahlias into the bouquets, made even more special knowing that Chelsea has begun growing her own dahlias this season.
@chelseataylor666
🌸
What you’re seeing is our last dahlia pick for the season.
What you’re not seeing… is everything that comes next.
This morning we picked our final flowers for our florists and customers, marking the end of the season here on the farm.
Now we let the plants rest and go to seed.
It might look like things are slowing down… but they’re not.
We’ll take a small pause as a family but winter is anything but quiet.
Here’s what’s already happening behind the scenes:
• Seed collecting from zinnia, cosmos, amaranth and scabiosa
• Planning spring crops
• Planting seedlings, corms and bulbs in May
• Tagging and labelling every dahlia
And then… we wait.
For that first frost.
Because that’s when the real magic begins, digging up tubers, like uncovering treasure beneath the soil.
It’s messy, labour intensive, and one of the most rewarding parts of the season.
From there:
• Dividing and storing tubers
• Opening the farm for dig + divide workshops
The flowers may be gone… but the work never really stops.
And honestly — neither does the love for it.
What you’re seeing here is the centre of Winkie Cinnamon “blowing” basically the dahlia opening up from that tight, perfect shape into its next stage.
And I didn’t actually realise this until I grew them myself…
It mostly comes down to a few things.
👵 First, age.
Even the most perfect blooms won’t stay that way forever. As they mature, they naturally start to open up and show their centre.
🐝 Second, late season.
Towards the end of the season, dahlias are trying to complete their life cycle so they open faster to attract pollinators and set seed.
🔥 Third, heat and stress.
A few warm days or inconsistent watering can speed the whole process up.
🌼 And lastly, the variety.
Some dahlias just do this more than others. Especially the softer, more informal types they don’t hold that tight shape for as long. Hello, Breannon!
So if this is happening in your garden you’re not doing anything wrong. It’s actually just your dahlias doing exactly what they’re meant to do.
We all start somewhere.
From this paddock of grass to rows and rows of flowers.
Our farm was built through a couple of seasons and continues to grow.
Seasons of trial and error.
Seasons of challenges.
Seasons of risk.
Seasons of hard work.
Seasons of self-doubt.
Seasons of pushing.
Seasons of pausing.
Seasons of laughter.
Seasons of tears.
Rome wasn’t built in a day.
And neither was this.
If you’re in your own “Day 1” right now, you're not behind, you're just beginning.
Keep going.
Keep showing up.
Because slowly, things will grow. 🌸
Chelsea & Sean 🩷
A truly beautiful couple - so genuine and easy to love. Creating these ethereal, daydream wedding florals was an absolute pleasure. ☁️🏹✨️
@chelseataylor666@sean_barnes_5
