WHEN Jetty Baks (pictured) was growing up as a young girl in Holland, little did she know her passion for flowers would translate into an emerging business as a flower grower and arranger near the small SA town of Lameroo.

Jetty and husband Alex moved to Australia in 2002 and ran a piggery, before Jetty turned her eye to flowers.

“In Holland I had this passion for flowers for my whole life, I reckon,” Jetty said.

I was a girl who would always buy fresh flowers from the market on Saturday, and come home to have them for Mum.

“I always had little bouquets in my bedroom, and when I later moved out my house would never be without flowers.”

Jetty’s flower business, like many cottage industries, came about almost by chance.

“I was in Adelaide a lot, and my next-door neighbours asked me one day if I could bring some flowers back to Lameroo, and I did,” she said.

“It showed there was a demand for flowers in the town.

“I started arranging, just for a few things on the table, and somehow people liked that. At that time we had Mrs Moncur’s Café, so I had a point to drop them off and show them to people.

“That went very well, so I started enjoying it more, and decided to do my flower course in Adelaide at the Adelaide Flower School. This was a 10-week course, and I learnt heaps there… every week was something different.”

Now she puts together 15 bunches a week, growing dahlias, straw flowers and sunflowers among others. 

Jetty also purchases fresh flowers from other South Australian growers to add to her bouquets.

“I love the fact that I have met so many people in the flower industry,” she said.

That’s not only at the flower market where I deal a lot with South Australian growers, but also just to talk to and get advice.

"Alex and I still must learn a lot and take on advice from experts.”

Jetty said she has had to warm to Australia’s flowers, which were so different to Holland.

“I wasn’t much into natives, because when Alex and I moved to Australia we thought, ‘What strange kind of flowers are those?’,” she said.

“I didn’t really like them and it took me a long time to get used to them. Now, if I could say what I prefer, I would say the natives."

Five months ago she leased a native flower farm at Karte.

“One day someone from Pinnaroo took me for a drive and said, ‘You have to have a look at this flower farm’," Jetty said.

“She took me to Karte and we walked around. All the Geraldton wax was flowering and there were also banksia trees on top of the hill.

She said, ‘Look at them, they will die’. I went home that night and I said to Alex that we had to do something.

“Can I explain it like, you come to a place and you feel like you belong there?

“That is the feeling I had when I was walking at Karte, although I realised for many trees and bushes it was already too late”. 

It took Jetty a while to convince Alex to take a look, but now they are preparing for their first harvest.

In the meantime she is continuing with the arranging side of the business.

“While I probably do around 15 bunches a week, that is a lot more when there is an event like Mother’s Day,” Jetty said.

“I have also started doing funeral flowers now, and weddings. When people book in advance a lot can be done. 

“I am very surprised by the interest and the support..”

Jetty now also has a flower shed at home, which has prompted her to stop putting her flower display in Lameroo at the café, Mallee Tyres and Hardware Store.

“It was very kind of them… but I felt to guarantee the quality I need to have the flowers in my shed, especially when the hot weather is on,” she said.

“I know the temperature is good, I know it is not too light, so the flowers last a lot longer.

“Even guys come to the shed now… they give me a text and say ‘do you have any flowers?’ and come and pick them up.”

Jetty has also learnt a lot about growing flowers in one of her remodelled pig sheds.

“We sorted out the light, and that is all going well,” she said.

The wind is a big factor in the shelter. It can dry the soil out very quickly. Hand watering was a big job, so we are looking into drippers on a timer.

“We are still working on adding pig manure to make the soil richer. We just had to work out what was growing in the shelter and what wasn’t.

“I go now with what I use in my bunches, and I know straw flowers are a beautiful addition to the natives, so that is what I focus on – and sunflowers did really well as well.”

Jetty also has a patch where she grows her favourite non-native flower, dahlias.

But like many gardeners, she hasn’t found it a smooth ride.

“I have had such a disappointing year with them,” Jetty said.

“Last year I picked every morning a basket full, and I had all sorts of colours.

“This year it was a different story. We had a bit of a snail problem, and I probably wasn’t on track with the weeds. “But then we had a bit of rain and with help from my uncle who started weeding, we have some colour back in the garden again. 

My grandma grew them in Holland. She was a very good grower and I just love the shape and the colour. Picking flowers from her garden is a beautiful childhood memory.” 

Jetty has seen a change in the way Australians embrace flowers.

“There was not a real flower culture here, (compared to Holland) when we arrived in Australia,” she said.

“They are quite expensive, but I am so happy to see a change. It is in fashion; people have started to really like a bunch of flowers in their house. 

“Flowers can change your mood and bring atmosphere to the home. You can have the most beautiful interior, but if you go home and there are no flowers in the house, it still feels empty.”

Jetty sells her arrangements from $35 middle-size to $50 for a large bunch.

“The reason I like natives so much is that they last for a lot longer,” she said.

“Temperature is a main factor of how long your flowers will last. Whatever flower you use, put it in a glass vase so the light can come in, and change the water almost every second day.

“As soon as the water looks a little bit muddy or yellow, tip it out, wash the vase, refill it, and put the flowers back in.”

Jetty also has some tips for home gardeners looking at putting together their own bouquets.

“Make sure you have some foliage – it is not a bouquet if you don’t have nice foliage in it,” she said.

"You need to look in your garden for some nice green, and before you start arranging strip all the leaves.

Put them in a room where there is light, but not full sun because the sun will take a lot out of the flowers, especially in the hot weather.

“I never use feed in my flowers… I just rely on rainwater.”

For now Jetty and Alex are hoping the Karte venture will be a success, while also focusing on delivering to Adelaide.

“I really do hope that Karte will take off, and that we go on to deliver to the Riverland, because I would love to work with the florists there,” Jetty said. 

“I do think I can do a delivery once a week if they want me to. Other than that, I will just keep going with my bouquets because that is what I love to do.

“After our life with pigs, this is a thing I like to do, it is purely my thing, my creativity.

“I could never have done it without Alex’s support, and all the work he has done at Karte is amazing.

Jetty’s flower business can be found at jettys_flowers on Instagram.

She says flowers are always available at her shed, are good quality, and arranged with love. Direct message Jetty on 0477 123 606.