DIY Event Blooms & Wedding Pick

Hi everyone, I'm always being asked where do I buy my tools, matting, seedlings, seeds, etc, and to help everyone out, I'm going to make a list on this page of all the resources I use, or that I know of for you to look into in New Zealand.

Trellis Netting

• I use Hortonova Flower Support Netting from Polynet in a 150x170mm spacing. This works well for me for the whole field and is UV stabilised and resistant to any sprays you may have to use. It's super light but very strong.
• If you don't require much and are on a budget, I do recommend the nylon fabric netting you can get from Temu. It worked just fine for me in my first year and is pretty darn strong!
  
  

Weed Mat / Landscape Fabric

• I use Heavy Duty Grade or Premium Grade Weedmat from Primehort in either 100gsm or 110gsm (thickness) as I have couch grass which is incredibly invasive and will be able to work its way through some lower grade fabrics. If you don't have invasive grasses you will likely be fine with lower grade 80gsm which is a lot cheaper.
• For pins, I also buy the short 15cm Steel Weedmat Pins from Primehort. I originally bought the 23cm ones as I'm in a very high windzone – and I still recommend getting some long ones for edges of your field – but I've since found the short ones do the job just as well and are MUCH easier to get in and pull out later.

Irrigation

I bought Rivulus T-Tape drip tape from Primehort, but you can can also get it from Irrigation Express

I bought my Lateral Pipe from Irrigation Express – this is a thinner walled pipe that you'll need to pop your valve fittings into so you can run your drip tape off it. I used a 10mm drill bit to pre-drill the holes in the lateral pipe, and you will need to do that too.

I bought all my fittings from Irrigation Express for the drip tape. I bought individual valves for all the drip lines so I could turn off any line at will, which was especially handy for the dahlia field when some needed watering and others didn't in the early days. I bought these end caps for the ends of all my drip lines. 

I bought this timer from Irrigation Express to automatically turn the water on and off from the field.

I bought these in-line 25mm valves from Farmlands to create 'zones' in my field so I could water one section at a time – useful when I wanted to only water the dahlias once a week, but the zinnias twice a week, or snapdragons etc.

I bought all the 25mm fittings such as T junctions, end caps and joiners all from Farmlands.

Tools

I swear by Hori Hori knives for weeding. When you have to weed a lot, and regularly, you need the good quality more expensive tools. I promise you it will change your life. Ditch the cheap stuff and get a Hori Hori knife. I also bought these and these.

A long-handled weed disturber of any kind is useful when weeds are small. Just drag it through the field

I bought a weed poison swiper thing so I can only paint certain leaves

Buy yourself a good sharpening stone

I bought my bulk snips from Temu – they are just as good as any you'll get here and a lot cheaper.

I bought my good snips from

Seeds
There are a lot of amazing seed companies available in New Zealand, including some specialty types:

Susan Ripley

Crawford Road

Emerden

Kings Seeds

Egmont Seeds

Seedlings
Again, quite a few great suppliers are popping up where you can order seedlings through:

Flora Flowers NZ (broker)

Gray Floral

Build & Bloom

Seedling Propagation Tools

I get my seedling trays from Daltons

I got my heat mats from

I got my grow lights from

I get my seed raising mix from Daltons