In 1991, after 11 years as manager of Hawkes Bay’s iconic cadet training farm, Smedley Station, Jerry Jeromson looked for a business for he and his wife, Di, and found Silvertips at Tapora. Silvertips grows flowers, proteas, for export to Pacific rim markets.

Jerry and Di Jeromson, from
Smedley Station to farming flowers

“More than 50% of our produce goes direct to Japan where proteas are very popular for their long life (approx 3 weeks) and are used prolifically for festivals and to honour ancestors, and especially to adorn graves,” says Jerry. “The rest go to exporters for markets in the US, Hong Kong, Taiwan and New Caledonia.”

“It’s a very good business and financially sound though the markets are subject to exchange rate fluctuations which affect all primary producers. Whatever the exporters don’t order, we ship chilled, to Japanese auction rooms.”

As with Smedley Station where Jerry relied heavily on Di to manage the hostel which housed 20 young cadets, he relies on her skills as a quality assurance manager in the packhouse.

“Di’s job is critical to our success. I’ll bring in a trailer load of blooms and she sorts them, checking minutely for insects. Depending on their length, flowers are packed from 25 to 100 per box.

“At one stage the US closed its borders to NZ produced flowers because insects had been discovered on a grower’s shipment. Silvertips has now been re-licensed for that market but it illustrates the importance of quality control.

“Di also deals directly with exporters and has taken on the marketing side of the business. Apart from helping with propagation, her time is fully engaged in the packhouse. We have a helper who comes in three times a week but otherwise, the entire operation is run between us.”

Jerry, now 57, was himself a cadet on Smedley Station and had always worked on large dry stock blocks. He says his friends poke ‘plenty of borax’ at him as a flower grower.

“Don’t misunderstand,” he says, “this is not a pretty basket of flowers operation. This is serious cropping. We have 15 acres in several varieties of protea, including one called Silvertip, plus a small block of Erica.

“We have a strict spraying regime and work with each variety as the blooms mature. No sooner has one variety finished than the next one starts blooming so we’re pruning, spraying, cropping and propagating all year round.

“Proteas are drought hardy. Our older plants didn’t notice the drought at all, and while the younger ones were stressed, they still coped very well.”

Daughter, Lea, the only fixed wing female topdressing pilot in Australasia, is about to provide Jerry and Di with a second grandchild — son, Bojo, is a tug skipper.

Both live in other centres and the elder Jeromsons are reaching a stage where they would like to have the time to visit… not to mention the time to play a few more rounds of golf than are currently being squeezed in, so Silvertips may well be on the market soon. Another dry stock block is an appealing option.