Working for many years in this industry can tend to ‘block out’ scent receptors when it comes to flowers, but Matthiola incana (stock flower) has this heady, almost spice like scent that is hard to ignore.
NZ Flowers Week were greeted by Denis Grogan and soon after his lovely wife Suntara appeared from a processing shed where she had been busy planting seeds into trays, ready to grow into one of the many product lines the Grogan’s produce.
A tour of their property showed large greenhouses that Denis built himself to house his ‘indoor crop’ lines such as: Stock, Asters and Celosia. At this time the main greenhouse was filled with rows of colourful single and double-flowered Stock.
The interviewers then wandered to where they grow their sunflowers - a large outdoor plot with neat rows of plants with flowers buds starting to emerge. Denis has answered a few Grower Profile questions. Have a read through to better understand what it’s like to produce flowers in New Zealand.

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