Driving through the hamlet of Forreston, you can be puzzled to know what the large enterprise is on the western side of the road, with its sizeable collection of greenhouses. Signage is not prominent, because this is a wholesale business that makes no great effort to capture the passing retail trade.
Jong’s Flowers was founded in the early 1980s by Dutch immigrants and in the early twenty-first century was run by five or six family members, led by Richard and Michael Jong, with 15 specialist staff. It was exporting all over Australia. The main trade was in lilies, alstroemerias, carnations, and freesias. The family maintained the connection with The Netherlands, sourcing bulbs from there, and with Richard annually returning there to keep up with trends.
The Forreston enterprise uses hi-tech automation to maintain optimum
conditions for growing. ‘The greenhouses are vast, although there’s hardly a flower in sight, only buds: all flowers are picked in bud with scarcely any colour showing, to ensure the longevity and freshness of the cut flower.’ So reported the celebrated media commentator on gardening, Sophie Thomson, when she visited in 2011.
Source: Adelaide Hills Magazine, Winter 2011, pp. 114 -118: Sophie Thomson ‘A Cut Above’; Jong’s Flowers; Greenhouse Management
If you have recollections, knowledge or further information that you would like to share about the people, places or events described here, then please contact us at mldhs@mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au
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