Flower Farming In Australia with Little Lyndoch Flower Farm
From Six Dahlias to 3,500: How One Couple Built a Flower Farm in Australia’s Barossa Valley
I was sitting at my desk scrolling through Instagram on a cold Oregon morning when I saw it. Dahlia buds, just about to open, in full Australian sunshine. It’s one of my favorite things about social media. When my fields are frozen and dormant, growers on the other side of the world are about to hit their peak bloom. It makes the flower world feel smaller and more connected.
That’s exactly why I invited Katie Arena onto The Backyard Bouquet Podcast this week. Katie and her husband Rob are the co-founders of Little Lyndoch Flower Farm, a seasonal flower farm and creative studio in Australia’s Barossa Valley, and their story is one of those that makes you believe anything is possible when you’re willing to just start.
How Flower Farming in Australia Began With a Trip to the Hardware Store
Katie didn’t grow up dreaming of flower farming. In 2016, she left her administration job to start a vintage furniture hire business for weddings. That’s how she met Rob, who was a personal trainer with a gym across the street from her showroom. Together, they started hiring out furniture for weddings, and when clients asked if Katie was a florist, she said yes. She’d never made a bouquet in her life.
But the moment she picked up flowers and started designing with them, something clicked.
Rob found his own version of that moment a little later. He went to the hardware store, came home with six dahlia tubers, planted them, and fell in love with growing. Katie’s Uncle Lucky heard they wanted to grow more and showed up one day with a greenhouse. Rob and Uncle Lucky built it together, and Katie and Rob went from six dahlias to 100.
As any dahlia grower knows, there’s no turning back after 100.
Building a Flower Farm in Australia’s Hot, Dry Climate
The Barossa Valley is known for beautiful wine, and the climate is hot and dry. Summers can be extreme, and this season, heat waves set Katie’s dahlia crop back two to three weeks. But one thing their elevated location in Lyndoch gives them is freedom from frost.
When they first started farming, Katie wanted to grow everything. Sound familiar? But the Barossa’s climate quickly taught them which crops would actually thrive. After years of trial and error, they narrowed their farm down to just three crops: dahlias and zinnias in summer, and ranunculus in spring.
That decision changed everything.
Why Growing Fewer Crops Made Their Farm More Profitable
The turning point came when Katie and Rob sat down and looked at the business side of their business. Some of the crops they were growing were actually costing them money when they factored in water, space, and time.
So they made the decision to pour all of their love and energy into just two summer crops and one spring crop. The result was immediate. Better quality flowers. More time to learn. And a business that finally made sense on paper.
This is one of the biggest lessons flower farmers around the world struggle with. It’s so tempting to grow everything, especially when the seed catalogs arrive. But Katie’s experience is proof that simplifying can be the most profitable decision you make.
From COVID to a $15,000 Fresh Start
When COVID hit in 2020, Katie and Rob weren’t sure they’d ever do another wedding. So they made a bold choice. They listed all of their vintage furniture and business stock on Facebook Marketplace, sold everything through contactless pickup, and used that $15,000 to fund the flower farm.
It was scary. It was a risk. But looking back, Katie says it was the right decision.
That first growing season confirmed it. They fell in love with the process. Growing their own flowers meant they could supply their local community and, eventually, their own wedding clients with locally grown blooms. The vision expanded from there.
How Katie and Rob Run Their Flower Farm Today
Today, Little Lyndoch Flower Farm operates on just under an acre of their two-acre property. They grow around 3,500 dahlias (including 500 seedlings for hybridizing), plus zinnias and ranunculus. Here’s where their flowers go:
Their cut flowers are wholesaled to a local wholesaler in South Australia. They sell retail bunches at a nearby patisserie to serve their local community. They run two annual online sales for dahlia tubers and ranunculus corms. And Katie’s floral design studio takes on 20 to 25 weddings per season, though this year they’ve pulled back to focus on building Bloom Academy, their new online education platform.
They also run a 3-day on-farm retreat called Bloom, and Katie is working on expanding that into online learning for people who can’t attend in person.
Outsourcing Changed Everything
One of the most honest things Katie shared was the moment they realized they couldn’t keep wearing all the hats. Growth was happening, and the overwhelm came with it.
Her advice? Write down every task you do for two weeks. Then look at that list and figure out what you can hand off. It doesn’t have to be a full-time hire. It could be an accountant, a graphic designer, a few hours of farm help. Katie also pointed out that outsourcing in your personal life counts too. Anything that frees up time for the work you’re best at.
For Katie, that work is marketing and floristry. For Rob, it’s the growing. Their team now respectfully prefers Katie to stay off the harvest crew, because she’d get too distracted taking photos and creating content.
What Flower Farming in Australia Can Teach Us All
Katie’s story carries a message that applies no matter where you grow. You don’t need a qualification to start. You don’t need a perfect plan. You need to be willing to try things, make mistakes, learn from them, and keep going.
Her advice to herself in that first season? It’s going to be a lot harder than you think. And it’s going to be a lot more incredible than you think too. Just keep going.
If Katie’s story resonated with you, I’d love for you to listen to our full conversation on The Backyard Bouquet Podcast.
Resources & Links Mentioned
- Little Lyndoch Flower Farm: littlelyndochflowerfarm.com.au
- Instagram: @littlelyndochflowerfarm
About Katie Arena
Katie is the co-founder of Little Lyndoch Flower Farm, a seasonal flower farm and creative studio in the Barossa Valley, South Australia. Alongside her husband Rob, Katie has built a business that includes wholesale cut flowers, dahlia tuber and ranunculus corm sales, floral design for weddings, and a 3-day retreat called Bloom. She’s currently developing the Bloom Academy for online learning. With no formal training in floristry, farming, or business, Katie and Rob are completely self-taught and share their journey openly to inspire growers and creatives around the world.
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