Flowers for the kids bloomin’ great

A STRETCH of sunflowers will be there for the picking this Saturday.

From 9am until 5pm, you can enter the sunflower field at Meredith Dairy’s site at the corner of Doyles Road and the Midland Highway and pick as many of the big bright blooms as you can afford to carry.

The blossoms are part of Meredith Dairy’s Sunflowers for the Kids event which is back after a wildly successful inaugural effort last year.

Hundreds of people stopped by the field in 2021 and Murray McConachy, Meredith Dairy’s cropping and pastures manager, predicted this year will be even more of a success.

“It’ll definitely be a lot bigger than last year,” he said.

“Bring your dogs, bring your kids, bring your family, your grandparents, and have a wander around and pick as many flowers as you like.”

Sunflowers for the Kids is being promoted by Woolworths Bannockburn, with all staff encouraged to attend.

The event started through a mixture of necessity and ingenuity for Mr McConachy, who saw an opportunity to plant in a field too wet to crop and get his kids out of the house.

As with the previous iteration, all proceeds will go towards the Royal Children’s Hospital’s Good Friday Appeal, which Mr McConachy said holds a special relevance for him and his family.

“My young fella had been in there very crook for about a week or so back in 2014,” he said.

“They did a really good job looking after him so it seemed like a great place to donate our time and effort to.”

Meredith Dairy account manager Gail Merygold said that although the team hopes to raise more than the $5000 from last year, she is most excited about seeing people having fun around the field again.

“The spirit of it last time was fabulous. The people were really generous, some actually donated more than the $2 for the flowers,” she said.

“The atmosphere is really what I’m looking forward to the most.”

Large flowers will cost $5 and smaller sizes will cost $2, with the option available to buy a handful at $25.