The red rocky hills of outback Queensland hardly sounds like the place to start a flower farm, but one cattle station is defying the odds preparing for its biggest day of the year, Mother's Day.
Rosebud Station Flower Farm is situated between Mount Isa and Cloncurry, and started selling local, seasonal flowers this year from their cattle station, Rosebud Station.
The micro flower farm is the brainchild of Samantha Campbell, 29, who conducted a cut flower garden trial in 2023 to see what would grow on the station.
"I honestly didn't know if any cut flowers would grow out here," Ms Campbell said.
"I convinced my husband Eddie to put some softer dirt from the creek into an old goat yard we weren't using to conduct the trial and I purchased different seed to plant.
"I trialled dahlias, zinnias, celosia, snapdragons, ranunculus, statice, stock, sunflowers, gladiolas, echinacea, strawflowers, rudbeckia and more.
"And to my surprise I grew seasonal flowers all year."
Ms Campbell said the trial wasn't easy and she couldn't find much information about growing flowers in the outback.
"When I was looking for inspiration, I couldn't find anyone doing what I wanted to any further west than Atherton," she said.
"I didn't have a gardening background, so I researched everything from what flowers to grow and when to plant them, to what watering systems to use and then had to adapt them to our climate.
"Water has been one of the biggest challenges, as our water has a high volume of calcium and it would burn and stain flower petals and clog-up our spray heads."
Despite the challenges, Ms Campbell found her passion for cut flower farming and decided to expand the trial.
"It really fills my cup starting something from a tiny seed and nurturing it into these beautiful plants and then turning it into a product for others to enjoy," she said.
"I originally started this project because after having three kids I felt disconnected from who I was. I wanted to be outside and involved with station life but I couldn't be in the yards drafting or on a horse tailing weaners with three kids, so I looked to find something for myself.
"So this year we made the decision to expand from the trial garden to a flower field and establish Rosebud Station Flower Farm."
Ms Campbell decided to expand the size of her field from the small 32m2 trial, into a 600m2 field.
"Our flower offerings will change throughout the seasons, providing a diverse range of locally grown flowers," she said.
"I am currently making two deliveries a week, once to Mount Isa and once to Cloncurry and the response has been amazing.
"For the last two months we have been selling out each week and I've had a lot of people messaging me saying 'I can't believe they are growing out there', which to me has been the biggest compliment."
With over 1600 followers on Instagram and over 650 on Facebook, it is no surprise Ms Campbell has already sold out for Mother's Day.
"I opened orders for Mother's Day and I had to close them within an hour. We had a lot of customers wanting multiple bunches, we had to start a waitlist.
"Last year I said I wanted to be selling flowers by Mother's Day and I am excited to offer locals that option.
"I've had interest from as far as Roma, Prairie and Burketown, so who knows, there might be potential to grow further in the future."
Disclaimer: Samantha Campbell is also a journalist with the North Queensland Register.
Kelly Butterworth
Kelly is the Agricultural Digital Editor for ACM Agri, covering Queensland Country Life, The Land, Farmonline, Stock Journal, Stock & Land, Farm Weekly and the North Queensland Register.
Kelly is the Agricultural Digital Editor for ACM Agri, covering Queensland Country Life, The Land, Farmonline, Stock Journal, Stock & Land, Farm Weekly and the North Queensland Register.
