floristry

Do you love gardening? Have a penchant for flowers? If so, there’s a bright business opportunity in orchid farming. But how do you get started? The first step toward building any successful business is knowledge.

That’s where our orchid farming course provides the education you need to get your dream off the ground.

The Certificate of Cut Flower Orchids will show you how to grow orchids as cut flowers on a commercial farm. You’ll learn about orchid cultivation, hydroponics, and potting and pruning techniques. You will also learn about propagation materials and equipment, plant hormones, diseases, and nutrients.

You’ll discover the importance of greenhouses and other growing structures, environmental controls, sterilisation and pest control, managing a market garden, and marketing your cut flower orchids.

So, if you want to learn to grow, harvest, and market cut flower orchids for a commercial garden, look for further than our orchid farming course.

What You’ll Learn

Outcomes achieved when you study our online floristry course – Certificate of Cut Flower Orchids.

• Basic plant classification
• Information on plant flower structure
• Soil cultivation
• Container growing
• Hydroponics
• Baskets
• Epiphytes
• Potting mixes
• Pruning orchids
• Propagation materials and equipment
• Seed
• Miscellaneous propagation techniques
• Propagation (tissue culture)
• Materials necessary for tissue culture
• Types of tissue culture
• Plant hormones
• Diseases
• Plant nutrients
• Greenhouse management
• Greenhouses and other growing structures
• Environmental controls
• Benches and beds
• Effects of carbon dioxide
• Yields
• Growing plants in greenhouses
• Plant needs
• Temperature control
• Greenhouse irrigation
• Cooling
• Horticultural management in greenhouses
• Sterilisation
• Pests and diseases
• Harvest and post-harvest
• Managing a market garden
• Crop scheduling
• Standards
• Farm layout
• Nursery costs
• Marketing your produce
• Economically valuable orchids
• International flower markets
• Special project – in-depth study of a specific group of orchids

And more …

Why Orchids?

Orchids are to the flower world what diamonds are in the jewellery business. They’re fine flowers that often adorn special celebrations, such as weddings, anniversaries and birthdays.

Many believe they’re hard to grow, but given the right care and conditions, they’ll be blooming for months at a time. Because orchids thrive in warm, humid climates, they’re perfect in Australia’s southern states.

There are over 30,000 different types of orchids from all over the world, each unique appearance.

5 Popular Australian Orchids

If you’re considering growing orchids, whether in your own garden or for commercial purposes, take a look at five of the most popular varieties.

1. Wax Tip Orchid

This bright purple orchid is widespread in most Australian states, except Western Australia and the Northern Territory. It is a problematic species to propagate, being germinated by fungi and pollinated by bees.

2. Moth Orchid

This is one of the most popular gift and decorative orchids. It can be grown indoors in any brightly lit room. These plants produce sprays with several blooms to a stem, in white, purple,e pink and sometimes yellow and cream. Some flowers have a unique checkerboard pattern. These orchids are suited to beginner growers!

3. Fairy Orchid

Fairy orchids can grow in trees or on rocks and are native to eastern Australia. Many people have these types of orchids displayed in hanging baskets. These orchids are white, terracotta, purple and pink and are best grown by experienced growers.

4. Cymbidium Orchid

These are some of the most popular orchids grown in gardens, usually in large outdoor pots. They have large, robust stems of flowers and come in various colours, including green, pink, magenta, yellow, cream, white and brown tones. Some species of this orchid are native to Australia and are well suited to bright, hot conditions.

5. Cooktown Orchid

The Cooktown Orchid is Queensland’s official floral emblem. It blooms from March to July and is pink or purple in colour. The flowering plant grows up to 80cm tall and is native to the Cape York Peninsula of Queensland.

Rarest Orchid in Australia

The rare pot-bellied greenhood orchid has been discovered in the southern highlands of New South Wales.

The critically endangered orchid usually only flowers for a couple of weeks a year, but that doesn’t necessarily happen annually.

The patch of 170 pot-bellied greenhood orchids was discovered by NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (DPIE) officers Jedda Lemmon and Vanessa Allen.

While they’ve been known to pop up in the Shoalhaven area, scientists with the DPIE were excited to find them further west. The discovery, they say, came about thanks to a wetter summer.

Given the orchid’s small petals, it wasn’t an easy unearthing. “Once you start looking for these, you get clued in, and your eyes start to pick them up, but with a flower the size of a fingernail – and it might only have two flowers and a flowering stem that might only last for up to two weeks – they can be challenging to survey for,” threatened species officer David Bain told the ABC.

Flower Farming in Australia – Erin Dore’s Story

After eight years working as an interior designer in Sydney, Erin Dore swapped stilettos for gumboots, heading home to establish Petal Head farm and florist on her parent’s historic Gympie property in regional Queensland.

COVID-19 made Ms Dore re-evaluate, so she invested all her savings and is now earning a living from her green thumb.

Since January, she has packed the large house block with stunning flowers grown from seed or bulbs in the case of striking hot pink dahlias, donated by neighbour Marge.

“People are just kind of amazed by the colours and the textures, so that’s what makes me excited,” Ms Dore said.

Flower Industry Australia CEO Anna Jabour said Ms Dore wasn’t alone in wanting a tree change.

On the day we spoke, she had three emails in her inbox from people looking to start flower farms to meet local demand.

Read more on this story at ABC.

 

Gain the knowledge and skills required to join the orchid farming industry or start your own flower farm with our Certificate of Cut Flower Orchids course!