Fawkner Flower School - Cool Season 2025

Growing Farmers is excited to present our first 4-week Flower School at Fawkner Food Bowls on Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country! Sessions will include learning trellising methods of cool season sweet peas and snap dragons, growing bulbs, corms and tubers and propagating seeds and taking cuttings. We will grow without chemicals and prioritise soil and biological health. We will also finish flower school learning to harvest, process and arrange flower bouquets with each participant taking home a posy of flowers. Join us to learn how to grow cut flowers at home, in your community garden or on a farm.  

• No prior experience is necessary! 
• Participants can book individual sessions ($50/session for Weeks 1-3, $70 for Week 4) or all four sessions ($200) plus booking fee.
• Costing is sliding scale and self-assessed. Please pay what you can and consider paying-it-forward with a donation if you’re financially secure
• Spaces are limited to 20 adults
• Each session includes morning tea, coffee and fruit catered by locals from the Merri Food Hub
• Final session will include a flower arranging activity with a florist using locally grown flowers to take home
• Fawkner Flower School will be facilitated by people from within and connected to our communities

Cool Season 2025 Program - facilitated by Cherry Rd Flower Farms' Dash Barnes.  

Each workshop is 3 hours (9am-12pm). Standard prices are $50 per workshop for Weeks 1-3 and $70 for Week 4 (includes take-home posy) or $200 for full course plus booking fee. Sliding scale options available - see ticketing for more info.

1. Saturday 26th April: Flower Trellising and Sweet Peas - a tour of Fawkner Food Bowls, designing growing spaces, building perennial garden rows for beneficial insect habitats, OH&S, intro to trellising and growing sweet peas
2. Saturday 3rd May: Propagating flowers through seeds and cuttings and discussing plant selection (scarifying lupins and cold treatment, light for germination, seed raising mix, direct sowing) 
3. Saturday 10th May: Bulbs, corms, rhizomes and tubers, planting, bed prep and mulching (pre-soaking corms, selecting varieties, cold treatment, spacing, tulips, dahlias, daffodils, ranunculus, solomons seal and bearded iris, dutch iris) 
4. Saturday 17th May: Harvest, processing and arranging cut flowers (when and how to harvest, where to cut to encourage more growth, processing and storage, arranging, how to prolong vase life, and flower industry talk). This session includes a take-home posy.