Photo: Emily and Tim Cain’s 2024 field of daisies could be replicated in garden beds in the Coonamble township. PHOTO: Kirsty Fisher Photography
Coonamble’s main street could soon be blooming if a delightful daisy experiment comes off.
A planned revamp of the gardens was debated back at the May meeting of Coonamble Shire Council.
A contractor was paid to develop a plan for the gardens which included both progressive planting of seedlings and the installation of irrigation systems in those beds that currently don’t have access to water.
The projected cost was included in council’s budget for the coming year at $85,000.
Now, thanks to the generosity of a local business, some of the beds will be subject to a trial planting using donated seeds and volunteer labour.
The July meeting accepted an offer from Emily and Tim Cain, the owners of local flower farm Petal & Bow, to undertake a mass planting of locally-produced seeds.
“It will be the paper daisies from the field we grew last year, so they’re Rhodanthes,” said Mrs Cain.
“Our thoughts are that the field of daisies got a lot of attention and people really wanted to see them but we won’t ever open our paddocks to the public because of it being a working farm.
“We thought by working with the shire we could share the flowers with the local community and with travellers and they can be something everyone can enjoy.”
Councillors agreed to proceed with the seeding in some of the main street garden beds, taking advantage of the current planting window, before the end of July.
“It’s a trial, we don’t know if it’s going to work,” said Interim General Manager Phillip Perram.
“Because they are then self-seeding, we needed to identify self-contained garden beds so the seed can’t escape.
“Mrs Cain also recommended that for the best outcome they would need irrigation, so we’ve selected beds that already have watering systems.
“We have to try to get rid of the couch grass before we plant anything.”
Mr Perram said the seeds would be sown in a handful of main street garden beds and another bordered bed at the Visitor Information Centre at Smith Park.
“We should start seeing the flowers in October,” Mrs Cain said.
“They’re a self-seeding annual so the flowers will really vibrant for about three weeks and then they’ll slowly start to set seed.
“Then hopefully next year, especially if we get March rain, they’ll start to grow again and we can go through and do succession plantings and we’ll have flowers for longer during the year.
If the spectacular display at the Cain’s farm earlier this year is anything to go by, the flowers could have big impact in the main street.
As well as being bred at Coonamble and proven to thrive in local conditions, Emily said the daisies are frost tolerant, pretty hardy, and just need to be kept damp while they establish.
“They shouldn’t need re-planting, that’s the beauty of it,” Mr Perram said.
“We don’t know what they’ll look like once they’ve dried off and we’ll have to see how much the maintenance costs.”
Funds for beautification remain in council’s budget for 2025/26 and the long-awaited masterplan for the CBD is yet to be developed and released.
Mr Perram says the results of the trial of self-seeding flowers “could be built into a future plans.”
“Hopefully, they’ll pretty up the main street,” said Emily.
“Next week we’d love to do a planting right around the football ground in that awkward space between the fence and the footpath.
“That might be something for next year.”