Sunny day: Karen McInnes, co-owner of the Patho Park Petals, soaking up the sun and the sunflowers.
Photo by
Nicole Thomson
Patho Park Petals has just hosted a successful open-day weekend, and is preparing for another this weekend.
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Owner Karen McInnes is proud of the popularity of the sunflowers, particularly because this year’s crop was an experiment.
“This is our first year with the sunflowers,” Mrs McInnes said.
“It was really just a bit of an experiment: they’re good for the soil, so we thought we’d put in a crop and see how we go, then we had all these sunflowers.”
Mrs McInnes’ Patho Park Petals is a boutique flower farming business that supplies rustic bunches of flowers to local artisans.
“I was just selling (the sunflowers) up at the roadside, and they had created so much talk that I thought we’d have an open day and see how it goes, so we decided on these two weekends,” she said.
“We’re blown away, we did a ticketed event because of COVID, and a bit of crowd control, but the amount of families that came in blew us away.
“People bought out their babies and prams, some were dressed up, some were casual: we just opened the gates and let people do what they wanted to do, it was mostly up to them.”
The photo-opportunities in the field of sunflowers were a big draw card for locals, including the Echuca Photography Club, with one photo in particular grabbing attention from all around.
“We were sitting up near the gates where people were coming in, and we turned around, and we just see a baby being thrown in the air,” Mrs McInnes said.
“All you could see was the tops of the sunflowers — you couldn’t see the parents — you could just see this baby coming up out of the flowers.”
The flowers that have been sown in the paddock are Aus Gold 62s, and the first crop has proved a big learning curve.
“They’re just fascinating flowers, I just think they’re wonderful,” Mrs McInnes said.
“They’re a dual-purpose type of sunflower, they can either be for oil or for seed for human and stock consumption.
“We’re just going to wait and see how it all pans out before we decide what to do with them.
“A lot of people have asked us if they actually follow the sun, and I’ve learned that sunflowers will always face the east.
“When they’re juvenile, they turn because during the day the east side of the steam will grow and be longer, then when the sun goes down the west side grows and they turn back, then once they’re mature, they always face east.
“It’s sort of a myth that they turn to face the sun, but at the same time, it’s true.”
The first open weekend has been a smash hit for Patho Park Petals, leading many locals to wonder if the farm will be open next year.
“The amount of people that have called out, and reached out asking ‘are you doing it next year’—we don’t really know,” Mrs McInnes said.
“The ideas are in my head already after this weekend, but who knows what next year will bring.”
No tickets is required for entrants under the age of 15.
Sunflower stems are $4 each, with a BYO bucket and secateurs/shears/pruners policy in place.
Patho Park Petals is also hosting a “Sunset in the Sunflowers” experience on Saturday night, where people can bring their own picnic baskets, drinks, folding chairs for a sunset night.
“Sunset in the Sunflowers is $50 per family or $25 per person, and they have to reach out to me to book in,” Mrs McInnes said.
“It’s BYO everything: families came out with picnic baskets, young women came out with picnic blankets and wine coolers, it was so good.
“Then after sunset, they all wander out of the sunflowers and go home.”
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