Olivera Milojevic has always loved dried flowers, even as a child. "They are fascinating," she says, "how they keep their shape and colours for years."
When Milojevic and her husband bought their Wairarapa property in 2022, there was no question about what they were going to do with it. Popin Flowers – as in "pop in any time" – is a flower farm that specialises in blooms for drying.
More than 20 different varieties are grown year-round in a section of paddock at the back of the property, located just outside Greytown. The blooms – including strawflowers, cardoon, statice, billy buttons, sea holly, blue echinops, achillea, lavender, nigella, scabiosa and proteas – are harvested in summer, then transformed by Milojevic into wreaths, bouquets, basket displays, greeting cards and more.
As if to prove her point, she shows a wreath that features not just dried flowers, but a miniature outdoor scene complete with a bird, picket fence and lantern. It's one of several products she made to sell at the annual Wairarapa Festival of Christmas in Greytown held in July.
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