A BLOOMING GOOD LIFE. IT ALL BEGAN WITH JAN AND JOHN!

Meet John and Jan Sadler. To me, Mum & Dad. They have spent their married life at Alandale, the family farm in Flowerdale on the north west coast of Tasmania in this agriculturally versatile area blessed with abundant water, volcanic soils, and some of the freshest air this beautiful world has to offer. Attached to this verdant land are major vegetable processing companies producing peas, beans, potatoes, broccoli, carrots, and the lion’s share of Australia’s onions. Jan & John have been growers of most of these crops over the years. Also spreading across the paddocks are opium poppies for medicinal use, pyrethrum for insecticides and tucked into all of this, is a thriving dairy industry. The farm produced milk from a rotary dairy which grew into quite a large enterprise milking close to 600 cows each day for many years. However, wanting to diversify beyond growing vegetables and dairy farming, Jan & John chose something different. In 1982 they chose to grow flowers. It was not long before their first greenhouse was erected. As serious growers of carnations and gypsophila for about 10 years, and dabbling in statice, lily of the valley, mini roses, tulips, chrysanthemums, sandersonia and peonies, they established a wholesale business which was later sold to focus more on the growing side. They spent the next 30 years toiling and mastering the art of growing lilies. In search of better ways to do things they travelled to Europe and the US visiting different farms to understand and adopt the very best in farming practices. Jan and John established a second business with another lily grower from Monbulk in Victoria. This business enabled them to grow their own bulbs locally so they weren’t solely reliant on having to import all of them from Holland. By doing so, they eventually found the key to a blooming good life as one of the finest growers of liliums this country has to offer.