Patumahoe: Lilies for Oprah’s table

American TV show hosts love them, and now this flourishing flower business is for sale. It even allows you to take the summer off.

"The hardest decision from December to February is whether to play golf or go fishing"

Coral Begbie shudders at the memory of her husband, Jeff, trying to kill off the white lily "weed" growing in the paddocks of their Patumahoe farm.

Today, the Begbies are the country's major exporters of Childsiana lilies - thanks in part to the hardy plant's indifference to a good dose of chemical spray.

Much of the 9.55ha property, a short drive from Pukekohe, is now a sea of glossy green leaves - in a few months it will be awash with pure white lily flowers.

Seventeen years ago, Jeff and Coral owned a poultry farm in nearby Drury, but when their son expressed an interest in starting a market garden, they bought the fertile Patumahoe land.

The Begbies never intended to let this lily take over their land. The previous owners grew ginger here, and the lily thrived in the swampy, irrigation lines between the crops.

"Jeffrey took one look at the lilies, came out with the Roundup and said 'We'll kill all those things'," Coral recalls. She quickly picked a bunch of young stems, took them to an exporter and discovered the international demand for the dwarf arum lilies.

"But when I got home, he had sprayed them all with chemicals! Fortunately, it didn't kill them - they just kept growing and growing."

After two harrowing seasons growing lettuce and broccoli for an oversupplied market, the Begbies decided to ditch the veges and launch into lily exporting. It has proved to be a bountiful decision.

Growing and harvesting lilies is a low-maintenance affair, according to the Begbies. Childsiana bloom from March through to October - so the couple can take the summer off. "The hardest decision from December to February is whether to play golf or go fishing," Jeff laughs.

Through the early part of the flowering season, Jeff and Coral can manage the picking, grading and packing on their own, finishing each day's work mid-afternoon. When the blooms become more prolific in August through to October, between four and eight people join them in the fields and the packing shed.

Demand for the lilies is stronger overseas than at home in New Zealand, where some people refer to the arum as signifying death. Lilywhite, as the Begbie's export business is called, sends 8000 boxes to Japan each year, and 2000 boxes to the US and Europe. There is also a local market for the flowers.

"You see a lot of the lilies on American TV shows - Oprah often has a vase of them on her set, and we sometimes wonder if they are ours," Coral says.

The property has 2.5ha planted in Childsiana, a self-multiplying plant, growing beneath huge frames draped in shade cloth. The lily loves to have its feet wet, and the land is well-irrigated by its own water bore, which can pump 40,000 litres of water an hour.

Maintaining row upon row of lily plants is not difficult, Jeff says. A flock of 40 sheep roam through the plants, cleaning up stray grass and weeds but never touching the lilies. "You can drive a tractor through here, and the plants are so hardy, they just bounce back," he says.

The rest of the flat land on the property is in grass, grazed by the sheep or harvested as silage for the Begbies' son, who now runs a dairy farm in Paeroa.

Outbuildings include a packing shed, where the picked flowers are graded, wrapped in tissue and boxed, before being placed in a coolstore container next door, ready to be taken to their markets.

Five years ago, Jeff and Coral finally sold their poultry farm and built a four-bedroom, brick-and-tile Golden Home on the Patumahoe property. The home has a friendly, open-plan feel to the living areas, which lead to a covered, outdoor entertaining area where the Begbies spend much of their relaxation time.

The master bedroom, with a sizeable en suite, has sliding glass doors opening to a small wooden deck and the front of the colour-filled garden Coral has developed.

An acre of garden sweeps around the house, framed by stately, established trees that grew there well before the house was built. The centre of attention in the back garden is a large pond, edged with old railway sleepers, and home to a healthy school of comet goldfish.

Although they love the lifestyle, the couple have decided it is time to retire from their floriculture business, and spend more time as doting grandparents and driving their pristine 1929 Model A Ford Tudor about the countryside.

Vital Statistics

ADDRESS: 258 Union Rd, Patumahoe.

FEATURES: Thriving floriculture business on flat fertile land; approx 2.5ha in Childsiana lilies, the remaining land in grazing; own water bore; packing shed and coolstore container; four-year-old, 213sq m, brick-and-tile home with large open-plan living areas; four bedrooms; master bedroom with en suite and walk-in wardrobe; double garage with internal access; sweeping gardens, and large fishpond, bordered by established trees.

SIZE: Land area 9.55ha.

TENDER CLOSES: March 17. Interest expected between $1 million and $2 million.

AGENTS: Adrian van Mil or Margie Ashby, Wrightson. Ph Adrian 09 904 8244 bus; Margie 09 904 8245 bus.