Taranaki’s Sunflower Meadow almost in bloom, ready for visitors in January

A Waitara couple is opening the gates to their sunflower field to the public in January. Photo/ Unsplash

The sunflowers are almost in full bloom at Taranaki’s sunflower farm.

Morgan and Scott, of Sunflowers Meadow Taranaki, are excited to invite the community to their farm in January.

Morgan says the flowers are a month away from reaching full bloom.

“We predict the sunflowers to be ready in January. When people come to visit on our open days we ask that visitors wear appropriate paddock footwear, bring their own cutters, park in the allocated area, watch their children at all times, not wander beyond the sunflowers and not bring animals or drones. We want this to be an enjoyable experience for everyone.”

Despite Scott regularly planting the edges of the couple’s maize paddock with sunflowers, this is the first year they’ve decided to plant a hectare’s worth of the flower.

“We usually plant a few and then sell them at the gate but this year we wanted to spread joy across the community and plant 60,000 sunflowers.”

Morgan says with a range of events from making fairy crowns and fairies in the flowers to yoga and a picnic, there is plenty to do in the field of sunflowers.

“We have the support of a number of community businesses to help make this happen. Humble Grazings New Zealand is making the snacking platters for the picnics and Rebecca Mende from Be Magical NZ will be flying in with some fairy entertainment. The Flower Cart Taranaki will help us with the flower crowns and Kerrie Jordan will facilitate the yoga.

“This is very much a community effort, we have the flowers but all these wonderful businesses are supporting us with these fantastic events. We also have private bookings with our photographer for people to capture their moment in the field.”

The Details:

What: Sunflower Meadows Taranaki.

Where: 631 Waitara Rd, New Plymouth.

Open days: January 7-8, 14, 15 and 21 and 22, Saturdays 3pm-9pm. Sundays 10am-3pm. There are also private bookings for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday (picnic bookings) 8am-9pm, Saturday 8am-1.30pm and Sunday 4.30pm-9pm.

Cost: for open days: $5 a person, under-fives free. Eftpos available. Cost $3 a stem for sunflowers.

Events: visit https://sunflowermeadowtaranaki.simplybook.me/v2/ for more information on events, booking times and cost of each event.