Stop and snip the roses

“Flowers were just a combination of the two,” she explains. “It’s like, ‘How can I have an art practice but also continue this love of growing things?’ And I really wanted to work from home.”

It turns out growing, picking and arranging flowers is absolutely a form of art.

“You’re playing with colour and form and composition and all of those traditional art principles. But also, building a landscape or a farm, to me, is like a beautiful art form.”

Don’t fret if you want to pick flowers but don’t consider yourself an artist – Emma says the beauty of flower arranging is that you can’t really get it wrong.

“The flowers are inherently beautiful, individually,” she says. “It’s almost like it’s all packaged up for you – the beauty is just there. When you combine them together, it’s still beautiful, even if you don’t have any arranging skills at all. So it’s a nice gateway into learning creativity and realising creativity that maybe you thought you didn’t have.”

Earthenry started hosting guests in 2019, and - despite the disruption of COVID shutdowns in its second year - the flower farm has continued to blossom. Its spring sales are especially popular. Last year, there was a line of 1000 people waiting their turn to check out the seeds, punnets, tubers, cuttings and more.

The farm offers more than 100 types of flowers, and on top of the pick-your-own events it hosts private parties, hens’ days and specialist workshops like perfume making (using flowers from the farm), ceramics (where you can make a vase and pick flowers for it), dried-flower arranging and kids’ events plus a whole lot more. Those who just want to pick flowers are free to roam the farm and choose whatever they’re drawn to.

“It’s that screen-free, in-nature, creative experience where you have free choice,” she says. “You’re not being directed to ‘you can only pick this many’ or ‘you can only pick from this row’, or ‘you can only pick zinnias, because that’s all we grow’. Being a creative person myself, I didn’t want to limit anyone.”

When Emma started Earthenry, she had to look to the USA to find business models that were anything like what she was envisaging. Now there are other flower farms in Tasmania and on the mainland, but they’re all a little different.

You can pick your own sunflowers at various farms across the state including Mount Gnomon Farm and Coal River Farm, and wander amongst the tulips (and buy bulbs, but not pick your own) at Table Cape Tulip Farm. At Bridestowe Estate, you can take photos between rows of lavender, or you can pick an arrangement of flowers at Tamar Valley Flower Patch near Launceston. Come spring, there will be riots of colour across the state.

Two years ago Earthenry installed a new peony field; Emma hopes it will yield plenty of flowers this season. Among the other spring flowers she’s eagerly anticipating are ranunculus, anemones, Iceland poppies, delphiniums, lupins and Dutch irises. The greatest joy for Emma will always be watching the faces of guests who delight in picking the flowers.

“Every single time we host an event, we have such positive feedback, and people leave with huge smiles, and they’re just so happy – you can feel it,” she says. “That’s really powerful. And it’s just so rewarding for us to see it.”

Earthenry's farm is open for visitors from October through to April. For more information, visit earthenry.com.au