GLAZE OVER

From garden beds to chunks of clay, Janae Paquin-Bowden has carved a fulfilling career from getting her hands dirty

- REВЕССА HOOTON

When Janae Paquin-Bowden was searching for flowers for her wedding, she didn't expect to barter livestock. “We ended up trading one of our sheep for wedding flowers,” she laughs. But when the florist's van rolled in, bursting with delphiniums, dahlias, hydrangeas and foxgloves, something clicked. “I knew from that moment that I wanted to be a flower farmer.”

Today, Janae lives that dream on a property in Lyonville, Victoria, with her husband Chris, their children Gigi, nine, and Atticus, seven, and their Westie x Scottish Terriers, Daphne and Bisous. “I grow flowers during the warmer months and create with clay in the colder months, although there's often a bit of overlap between the two,” she explains.