A roadside sunflower-selling venture that started as a side income earner has bloomed into a full-time tourist business for Deanne and Phil Crowder.
The Crowders rear calves and grow maize for silage on their 34 hectare farm near Taupiri in Waikato.
They started growing sunflowers in one of their maize crops in 2019 purely for aesthetic value and would sell them via an honesty box at the roadside.
Growing the flowers was also a way for Deanne to honour her sister, who died in a car accident in 2001.
“Sunflowers were her theme at the funeral and it became her flower.
“It wasn’t until we picked them and started the flower cart at the end of the road that we realised how popular they were just as single sunflowers,” Deanne said.
The flowers were meant to be planted on the edge of the crop, but instead were mixed in with the maize seed.
This made retrieving them a challenge in the heat of the summer as they searched for the flowers among the maize, which is almost as tall, Phil said.
“We were walking through the maize crop, holding them up in the air trying not to knock their petals off.”
While the cash they received at the time was small in the context of total farm income, it did give them the confidence that they might have a money earner on their hands.
“It was a pretty good uptake. We were having to run backwards and forwards to fill the cart,” Deanne said.
They started researching sunflowers online and came across sunflower tourism in other countries and took a punt by planting half of a 2ha maize paddock in sunflowers.
Over the course of the next three years it steadily grew as a business where people can pick their own flowers to become the major income earner on what is now known as Taupiri Sunflower Farm.
Last year they grew 245,000 sunflowers and in 2021 had 11,223 visitors through the farmgate.
It’s not been without its challenges and they quickly learnt they have to maximise the flower’s 10-day bloom period by getting local contracting business Gavins to stagger the planting dates through mid-October to early December.
The business is also heavily reliant on the weather, so staggering the dates also reduces the risk if they do get hit by a weather event.
“It’s so hit and miss – the weather is everything with this. If you get high winds or a random storm that comes in, your crop’s done,” Deanne said.
Summer heat can also be a problem. In the season just finished, the intense heat sped up the bloom of the crop.
Also factored into their planting decisions are sunflower varieties. The Crowders use six different varieties, each with its own characteristics around colour, height and flowering length.
People like their photos taken next to the varieties that grow to eye level and walk through the giant ones, Phil said.
Some varieties take 80-90 days to flower while others take only 60 days.
“It’s a juggling act,” Phil said.
Insects such as slugs and clover flea are another challenge and the Crowders give the crop a pre-emergence spray to keep bugs away.
They have also had germination failures, which they believe were caused by a wet spring, meaning a whole block had to be replanted.
“It’s got to the stage where I’ve rung the seed company and we have gone through the varieties and we were trying to find ones that flowered in 40 days instead of 60 days,” Deanne said.
After 10 days of bloom, the flower’s petals begin to fall off as the head continues to grow.
The seeds are offered to anyone who wants them and what is left is mulched back into the ground.
They do not collect the seeds because they do not produce enough volume to make it commercially viable to produce oil.
The 2023-2024 season was extremely successful thanks to the good weather with 3.5ha planted into sunflowers, running from December 27 to February 14.
The Crowders worked for 50 days in a row over that period, which was both exhausting and satisfying.
Then there is the work that occurs once the season ends – mulching the flowers and putting away photo props.
On top of that, they were also rearing both autumn and spring calves.
The income derived from this six-week window is enough to keep the business afloat all year.
The couple were rearing autumn and spring Friesian calves but have gradually shifted away from this due to the costs and poor returns.
They have dropped autumn rearing altogether and will only rear spring calves as they focus on tinkering with the sunflower business.
They have also stopped growing maize because the returns are too volatile. Instead the land has been put into pasture for animal grazing.
“We’re making as much out of a hectare of sunflowers as we were out of 20ha of maize.
“Having a block like this, we have to keep thinking outside the box and sunflowers are part of our outside the box,” Deanne said.
They created Taupiri Sunflower Farm through a mix of trial and error and looking online at how sunflower farms operate in other countries.
They also take on board suggestions from visitors.
Deanne said what stood out for her this year was that there were far more Waikato visitors. In the past, most of the visitors have come from Auckland. They have also for the first time had repeat visitors.
“We now have regulars and that’s really exciting.”
They have created a picnic area, which has become popular for family gatherings over Christmas. These are gatherings with at least 25 people who bring their own barbecues or food and then go and look at the flowers, Phil said. The Crowders provide the picnic tables and umbrellas. The visitors book and pay for their tickets online and these are scanned on entry.
The farm’s location – on the main road from Gordonton just before Taupiri – makes it highly accessible.
Many of the visitors are Chinese or from south Asia. In China, the plant symbolises long life, vitality and good luck, and plays a significant role in Hindu culture.
The sunflower fields also attract lots of families who book it for photoshoots, with the vast majority of people coming from urban backgrounds.
“We worked out in the first year that people come for the photos – so we put little props out and we have them all through the sunflowers,” Phil said.
They also planted some sweetcorn to allow tourists to pick their own. Many had never seen a maize plant and had no idea that was how that variety of sweetcorn was grown, Phil said.
The Crowders firmly believe their farm is helping build better bridges between farmers and those who live in cities.
As well as the personal connection to her sister, for Deanne, the feel-good factor of standing in a paddock full of sunflowers in full bloom is a strong drawcard.
“You can’t be glum in a field of sunflowers.”
Deanne said they try to keep it relaxed as possible with a few farm animals scattered around for people to see and interact with, such as kunekune pigs and goats.
This year also saw the first tour bus stop at the farm, which shows how popular they have become as a legitimate tourist venture.
The farm is booked for music videos, fashion shoots and even as a background set for a circus promotion.
“They set their trapeze up, it’s crazy they’re up high doing flips and stuff.
“My absolute favourite is every year we’ll get a couple of proposals coming through,” Deanne said.
They get told in advance and prepare an area among the flowers for the couple.
They also created a maze in the crop that opened up to a platform in its centre, which was a huge hit, she said.
Looking ahead, they will plan each crop on a year-by-year basis and will use the rearing to supplement their income.
If the sunflower crop gets hit with bad weather, they still have the option of increasing their calves to handle any income shortfall.
“We’re already planning. As soon as the gates shut, we’re start planning for next season.”
