Spring has brought a burst of colour to Arvin Cao’s Woodstock flower garden, with ranunculus, statice and other seasonal blooms filling the garden at Arvin’s Flowering Shed. What began as a hobby has grown into a small local flower business, with Mr Cao now supplying fresh, locally grown bouquets to the Woodstock Post Office, Crafted by Nature in Cowra during the week and the Cowra Visitor Information Centre on weekends. His Woodstock property is a long way from where his gardening journey began. Mr Cao grew up in the countryside of China, where his mother grew flowers and vegetables, and gardening became part of his life from an early age. After moving to Australia as an 18 year old student in 2012, Mr Cao studied accounting and worked in Sydney before gardening became a bigger part of his life during COVID-19 lockdowns. Living in an apartment at Olympic Park, he began growing vegetables on his balcony. He and his partner then started exploring regional NSW on weekend road trips, eventually finding their 7.5 acre property at Woodstock. Initially, Mr Cao concentrated on growing vegetables and restoring the overgrown garden. Then he discovered flowers. “I started with growing flowers and then I found my addiction,” Mr Cao said. That addiction has now developed into Arvin’s Flowering Shed, although Mr Cao said there was never a formal business plan behind it. Rather than growing large quantities of a single flower, he grows a wide range of varieties and foliage, creating mixed bouquets that change with the seasons. “It really is a joyful hobby, as do work full time in Cowra,” he said. Spring is currently showcasing some of the garden's key blooms, including ranunculus and statice. As those flowers begin to slow down, Mr Cao is already preparing seedlings and tubers for the next stage of the growing season. Timing is critical, with seedlings and tubers needing to be prepared well ahead of when they are expected to flower. He has planted native species including banksias, waratahs, grevilleas and wax flowers, which will take several years to establish but could eventually help extend his growing season into the cooler months. “I want to provide flowers through the whole year as much as I could, minimise the gap when many flowers aren't blooming,” he said. “You can’t change anything with nature,” he said. “We always have to work with nature.” From a handful of vegetables on a Sydney balcony to a blooming garden at Woodstock, Mr Cao's journey has been shaped by a love of growing and the local community that encouraged him to share it.
