Thanisa Adam’s organic flowers are grown locally in Victoria on a single acre of farmland in Plenty Valley. Four years ago she established her vegetable and flower farm, but recently decided to devote all of her attention to raising beautiful organic blooms.
Thanisa’s love for growing flowers began long before she studied a Masters in Agriculture and worked on Victorian market farms. She was growing flowers at home when she learned that 90% of all organic blooms are imported from outside of Australia, which prompted her to grow and sell her own locally. She grows different varieties in the spring and summer seasons, the most popular of which are dahlias (summer) and ranunculus (spring). Her own favourite are poppies, whose shape and colours make her feel happy.
Thanisa is one of a handful of young farmers in Victoria engaging in work swaps and collaborations to support each other with the stress of the work. The phyiscally exhausing labour coupled with the uncertainty of harvests is tough on Thanisa’s mental health. The unexpected fluctuations in temperatures and extreme weather events like recent flooding, make farming unappealing to many young Australians.
For young farmers including Thanisa, nurturing their mental health is one of the biggest challenges. She copes with the mental distress by talking to other young farmers and prioritising time to rest. “I remind myself that I don’t have to overwork to produce good flowers, and I don’t feel guilty taking a weekend off.”
Thanisa harvests over 400 bunches of organic flowers each week and sells them wholesale and at farmers markets on the weekends. On weekdays, she focuses on caring for her flowers: weeding, preparing the soil and fertilising her crop. She shares the labour of the farm with her friends at Plenty Valley Produce who now harvest the vegetables on the farm and sell them alongside Thanisa at local farmers markets.
Right now Thanisa is selling dahlias, zinnias and cosmos. She is getting ready to plant spring flowers (poppies and ranuculus), which take nine long months to grow. Keep your eye out for her spring blooms in September.
Thanisa attends Coburg every Saturday and can be found on the occasional Saturday at Carlton. She really enjoys being at the farmers market where she loves chatting to customers about growing flowers. She is also grateful for her customers’ support. There are not many farmers selling locally grown organic blooms and she loves that market shoppers find them as beautiful as she does.
Thanisa’s freshly cut organic flowers last seven or more days when cared for properly: be sure to change the water in your vase every day and snip the ends off of your flower stems every second day. You can also add a tiny dash of vodka or a splash of lemonade to keep your flowers longer!
Follow Thanisa and Wattle Gully Flower Farm on Instagram and Facebook.