Twenty years ago, Jen Warburton
was handed a kilo of raw everlasting
seed by a friend. She and husband
Rob scattered it by hand across a weed-free
corner of their sheep and grain property
near Kojonup, Western Australia.
It rained, the everlastings came up, and
a business was born almost by accident.
Two decades on, Lucinda’s Everlastings
supplies stockists nationally, still run
from the same family farm.
How did that first paddock become a successful business?
We really just had a go, mixing the seed
with sand and walking up and down
spreading it by hand, with no idea what to
expect. Once it grew, we had to work out
everything ourselves, how to manage,
harvest and clean it. That first year we sold
our whole crop, around 70 kilos, to a buyer
thrilled to finally get an Australian-grown
supply instead of imported seed. The next
year we had seed left over, so we thought,
why not sell it ourselves. We found nothing
in tourist shops or garden centres but
packets too small to plant a proper bed,
so I made a label and stuck it on snap-lock
bags. That was the beginning.
You’d built your working life around
sheep and grain.
What was it like starting a flower and seed business from that background?
It turned out to be just another enterprise
for a farmer. We already had the land,
equipment and agronomy know-how, so we
adapted what we had. Growing a hectare
proved harder than growing a small garden
patch, but after twenty years and stuff-ups,
we’ve learned how.
What’s been the hardest part of building the business?
Perfecting a completely weed-free crop. We
never wanted anything but pure everlasting
seed in a packet, and getting to that certainty
took years. Alongside that, we set out to
grow bigger, plumper seed than you’d find in
the wild, so gardeners could count on strong
germination. Cleaning was its own challenge;
my dad helped us build our first equipment,
and the native seed industry has been a
generous source of information ever since.
Twenty years on, who runs the business day to day?
I basically run it, a one-woman
industry now backed by a business
coach, but it’s been my project from
day one. Rob handles the growing,
harvesting and cleaning, while
packaging and sales are my world.
Our daughters Lucinda and Zara
package and post orders from Perth.
It’s 10 hectares of everlastings against
6000 of grain, so the everlastings
have to be prioritised, but they’re
non-negotiable every season. Walk us through the annual growing calendar.
We start years ahead, fallowing the
ground until it’s completely weed-free
before a crop goes in – no herbicides
are used as everlastings are very
sensitive to them. We sow late, and
depending on the season, between
May and July, giving ourselves two or
three chances to control weeds first,
because once the seed is in, that’s it.
Come October we host a charity open
day, when up to a thousand people
stand in the paddock to see the
blooms. Harvest has no fixed date,
Rob walks the crop watching for the
seed to start shedding, a skill he’s
learnt over 20 years. Once harvest
is close, everyone on the farm turns
up and everything else stops.
What actually happens between the paddock and a packet in someone’s letterbox?
Once the flowers have matured, the
seed is harvested and cleaned to a
high standard, then heads to
our shop, where it is run through the
packing machine, with someone
filling each packet by hand before
everything is sealed and boxed.
How do you make sure the seed germinates reliably for home gardeners?
It comes down to the care that
goes in long before cleaning.
We get the fertiliser and growing
conditions right, so our seed is
noticeably bigger and plumper
than anything found in the wild.
Wild seed is tiny and can be
temperamental, ours carries more
energy, so it comes up easily.
What does the next chapter look like for your business?
We just want to keep doing what
we’re doing, steadily. Care for the
land has always run through the
operation, we’ve revegetated our
waterways, looked after our soil,
and never use chemicals to
keep the wildlife around us
thriving. Whether Lucinda or Zara
take the reins one day, or Rob and
I carry it through to retirement,
that’s a story still being written.
What won’t change is our
commitment to seed that
gardeners love growing. We’d
also like to build our retail side.
Ready to Grow Your Own Field of Colour
Shop our homegrown Everlasting Daisy seeds and bring a touch of Kojonup beauty to your garden.
