The Story Behind Wonky Flowers

It started with a lettuce grower and a whole lot of leftover blooms.

Right after Valentine’s Day, our mates at Southern Fresh - the legends behind some of the lushest leafy greens in Aotearoa - gave us a ring. But this time, it wasn’t about green frilly lettuce.

Turns out, they also run Burwood, one of the country’s biggest flower growers and importers. High achievers, right? Their greenhouses were bursting with beautiful blooms grown for the big day. But thanks to the usual chaos of unpredictable demand, last-minute order changes, and the industry’s strict cosmetic standards, thousands of stems were left without a home.

If you’re already on board the Wonky train, this might sound familiar. The flower industry operates a lot like fresh produce - with tight standards, high stakes, and a whole lot of waste when things don’t go exactly to plan.

A flower might be turned away for being too short, too tall, a bit bendy, not enough buds, or the “wrong” colour for that week’s trend. Some grow at a slightly different angle. And sometimes, there are simply more stems than the market can take.

To the untrained eye, you’d never know anything was “wrong”. They’re not old. They’re not tired. They’re fresh, seasonal, and very vase-worthy - just set aside because they didn’t meet tight specs or weren’t needed when the orders came through. And when that happens, some stems are rejected.

We’ve seen it with wonky veg: good, fresh food tossed aside for not looking the part. Flowers face the same fate - and it’s the grower who shoulders the waste. The time, the labour, the water, the energy - it all goes into growing something with care, only for it to be discarded at the final hurdle.

And while the blooms don’t make it out the door, the environmental cost already has.

Cue lightbulb moment.. though we can’t take the credit. It was the grower who floated the idea: what if we gave these flowers the same second chance we give to our wonky fruit and veg?

And just like that, Wonky Flowers started to bloom.

Sourced from our grower mates at Burwood – one of Aotearoa’s top flower growers and importers – these are top-quality stems grown in the Waikato and beyond. Some are a little too long, too short, too curvy, or simply too many for the market to handle. While we don’t import flowers ourselves, we’re able to rescue what doesn’t make it to retail, whether it’s grown in local greenhouses or brought in from overseas. It’s all about giving fresh, beautiful flowers a second chance to shine.

We took a trip to the Waikato to see things up close - rows of chrysanthemums stretching out in every direction, and a packhouse that smelled better than any we’ve ever visited. We talked shop with the team, saw where the flowers are bunched and sent out, and had honest chats about the challenge: when stems don’t meet strict retail specs, they’re often left with nowhere to go.

Seeing them up close, it was clear - these flowers weren’t past it. If anything, coming straight from the grower, they were fresher than most.

So instead of going to waste, they’re now going straight to Wonky Box customers - fresher, more affordable, and with a story worth sharing. Just good flowers from good growers, cut to order and delivered fresh to your front door.

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