Sunflower and flower picking farms in Australia

Flower picking is the fastest-growing part of Australian pick-your-own, and it works differently from fruit. A flower farm is usually a ticketed event on announced days, not a paddock you can turn up to whenever you like.

There is no national sunflower season

This is the thing that confuses people, and it is genuinely true rather than a hedge. A sunflower crop flowers about ten to twelve weeks after it is sown, and Australian growers sow when their own climate suits.

That means a sunflower farm in south-east Queensland can be in full bloom in July, August or September, one in the tropics near Mackay in October, and one in Victoria in high summer. All are correct. When we first built this site we applied a single national sunflower window and it flagged three perfectly accurate farms as errors.

So for sunflowers, and for dahlias, tulips and mixed picking gardens, the only reliable answer is the farm’s own announcement. We carry whatever dates each farm has published, and the date we checked.

How a flower farm visit usually works

Most sell timed sessions and cap numbers. You book online, arrive in your slot, and are given snips and either a jar, a bucket or a wrap. Pricing is normally an entry fee plus a per-stem or per-bunch charge, or a flat price for a container you fill.

Some farms release their exact address only after you book. That is deliberate on their part, usually because the paddock is on a quiet road that cannot take casual traffic, and it is why a handful of listings here have no street address.

What to take

Closed shoes and a hat, as always. A bucket with a little water in the boot of the car makes a real difference to what survives the drive home, and many farms sell one. Take cash as a backstop.

Go early in the session if you can. Flower fields get picked over in exactly the way fruit rows do.

Making the flowers last

Cut on a slant, and cut lower on the stem than feels necessary. Strip every leaf that would sit below the waterline, because submerged foliage rots and fouls the water within a day.

Get them into water quickly, keep the vase out of direct sun, and change the water every couple of days rather than topping it up. Sunflowers in particular are thirsty and dirty the water fast.

Dahlias are the shortest-lived of the common picking flowers and the most worth cutting fresh; sunflowers, if kept in clean water, will hold for a week or more.

Where to find them

Flower and sunflower farms sit close to the capitals, because cut flowers do not travel. There are clusters around Melbourne and the Dandenongs, the Adelaide Hills and the Barossa, south-east Queensland, and the Sydney fringe.

See flower picking farms and sunflower picking farms, or find one on the map.

Updated 27 August 2026