🎙 Dish the Dirt: 302 Flower Farm — Growing with Heart, Heritage & Dahlias

In this episode of Dish the Dirt, we speak with Olivia from Pemberley of Malmsbury about her third year participating in the Main Central floral installation at the Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show. After winning a Gold Medal and People’s Choice Award in 2023, and a Bronze Award last year, Olivia returns with even more passion—this time celebrating community, collaboration, and local blooms.We dive into how Olivia and her fellow micro flower farmers from the Macedon Ranges joined forces to create large-scale installations that not only wowed judges and audiences, but also highlighted the power of working together. These growers donate their flowers to community events like the Kyneton Agricultural Show, creating beauty and impact beyond the industry.💐 Featured FarmsSupport the growers behind the magic:Lombardy Farm – lombardy.farmPemberley of Malmsbury – pemberleyofmalmsbury.com.auBunch Flower Farm – @bunch_farm on InstagramFat Magpie Farm – fatmagpiefarm.com.au✨ If this episode inspired you, please rate and review us on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. It helps us grow and share even more stories from flower farmers across Australia.We can’t wait to see what Olivia and the team dream up next year—and we hope it encourages more farmers and florists to team up at MIFGS. Wouldn’t that be magical?

Host: Bec Noble | Episode Recorded Live at the Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show 2025In this special episode, we meet Anna and Ray from 302 Flower Farm, a passionate husband-and-wife team growing seasonal blooms on their breathtaking property in Victoria’s Western District. From Proteas to Dahlias, tank water challenges to sunset views over the back paddock, Anna and Ray share their love for land, flowers, community, and the generations that have helped shape their farm.🌼 Hear how they turned a shared love of gardening into a thriving family-run business.🌿 Learn about their roadside stall, subscription model, and how teaching & mental health backgrounds influence their on-farm workshops.💐 Discover the beauty of resilience, wild wombats, flower-loving grandchildren—and why connection to country and creativity are at the heart of what they do.🌸 Plus: insights into their upcoming Mother's Day Workshop, their experience at Growers Avenue at MIFGS, and what’s next for this inspiring duo.✨ Follow 302 Flower Farm: @302flowers🎟 Book their workshops & events: https://www.302flowers.com🌻 Support local flower farmers. Share the beauty. Keep being blooming fabulous.

Recorded live at the Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show, this quick chat features world-renowned floral artist Sue McLeary (aka Passionflower Sue).I was lucky enough to grab a few moments with Sue to talk about her artistry, the beauty of floral wearables, and her love of locally grown flowers.It’s short, sweet, and full of floral inspiration. Enjoy! 🌸🔗 Learn more about Sue: passionflowersue.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @_dishthedirt_Let’s Stay Connected:📸 Instagram: @_dishthedirt_🌐 Website: www.dishthedirt.com💌 Email: [email protected] you loved this episode, please consider leaving a review and sharing it with a flower-loving friend—it truly helps us grow!

VOTE! Dish the dirt Listeners Choice Awards https://www.australianpodcastawards.com/voting Botany is a sustainable online florist based in Melbourne. We take the traditional florist business model and give it a green overhaul, by offering products that have been created from farm to door without any single-use plastics or unnecessary packaging. We create all of our beautiful arrangements using only locally grown and seasonal flowers, and arrange them into glass vases that ensure your flowers arrive fresher and ready to enjoy! If you are as serious about sustainability as we are you will love sending flowers with Botany.

Craig Scott East Coast Wildflowers My father and I started farming together in 1984, our family has been involved in the cut flower and foliage industry either as growers or florist for a number of generations. I live on the NSW Central Coast Australia. Our main farm is at Mangrove Mountain and we wholesale our flowers and foliage at Sydney Flower Markets where we have market stands and warehouse facilities. On our farm we specialise in growing Australian flora, in the field as well as in greenhouses. The main species that we grow are Anigozanthos, Eucalyptus for foliage and flower, Actinotus (Flannel Flower), Grevillea, Telopea, Rhodanthe, Bracteantha (everlasting Daisies) Ptilotus (Mulla Mulla) and a wide range of other interesting Australian wildflowers, we aim for year round production. East Coast Wildflowers is one of Australia’s leading wholesalers specialising in Australian Wildflowers and South African Proteaceae, we source cultivated flowers and foliage from most states in Australia.

From country show baking to raising orphaned lambs, bestselling author Maya Linnell writes about the life she lives and loves. A keen bookworm, former rural journalist and radio show host, Maya is also an ambassador for the digital library app Libby OverDrive. She lives in rural Victoria with a menagerie of animals, sweeping gardens, three bookworms and the odd tiger snake or three. Kookaburra Cottage is now available in all good bookstores, Big W, Kmart and also available for download.

Soho Rose farm is a cut flower farm growing field grown garden roses and seasonal flowers in the heart of our family run working cattle, potato and cropping farm within the Hepburn Springs farming district.

I have been a florist for over 25 years but have had a love for flowers all my life, my earliest memories would be picking from our large garden on the farm I grew up on. I went straight into floristry from school and was traditionally trained. I moved to Wanaka and my sole focus had been weddings for the last 16 years up until covid. About 6 years ago we purchased the land I grow on now and always had a vision to grow blooms for my floral design. Growing primarily hard to source garden blooms and in particular dahlias was the goal. Covid hit and I pivoted to selling online retail and growing a more diverse range of blooms in a small cutting garden and then selling excess flowers to other local florists. I am so lucky to have such amazing relationships with the fellow florists and other local growers in the area. I am really passionate about locally and sustainably grown blooms and supplying high quality flowers not just for couples who are my clients but other florists and their clients who get to use and see our amazing blooms. We also sell tubers from our dahlias each year and are developing our own hybridised varieties with the focus being on more wedding style blooms as the clients we supply to are mainly florists for weddings and my own clients getting married. We are also wanting to grow a range of blooms for seed and see a need for less imported seeds and more self sufficient production in New Zealand - something I hope to delve more into over the coming years.

Field of Roses is a small flower farm and floral design studio led by farmer/florist mother and daughter duo Zoe and Sue Field. Nestled in the beautiful Waingake Valley just outside of Gisborne, New Zealand. Field of Roses was established in 2012 after Zoe had an idea to plant a field of roses on her family farm, alongside with an assortment of flowering annuals and perennials that all lend themselves to their wild and romantic designs. They do a bit of everything, weddings, everyday bouquets, workshops, wholesale and most recently released their book, LOST & FOUND, filled with lots of flower inspiration for any flower lover. You can find LOST AND FOUND in Australia Dymocks -everywhere Readings (Melbourne) Boffins (Perth) Kinokuniya (Sydney) Avid Reader (Brisbane) Paperchain (Canberra) Fullers (Hobart) Dillons (Adelaide) Gubba Bags - Gubba.co.nZ Beneficial Bugs - bio force.co.nZ

Clifton Blooms is a flower farm located by the beach and among the gum trees in southern Tasmania. The farm was established in 2021 by Kate Dixon. Kate grows a mix of Australian natives, South African natives as well as interesting perennials and annual flowers. Clifton Blooms supplies flowers directly to floral artists and clever creatives in the greater Hobart area