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Q A WITH
l e i T n a v y r Ker ER FARMS) (BOKAY FLOW
From Mother’s Day to birthdays and anniversaries, because there’s always a special day for special someones, East Auckland local, Kerry van Tiel, nurses her young charges to ensure they’ll rise to the occasion. Recently, EastLife spoke with Kerry, daughter of Bokay Flower Farms’ founders Bernie and Pat Kay. Kerry van Tiel
Do you live as well work at the Bokay property in Ramarama? Either way, do you grow flowers in your own backyard? My son [Jacob] and father [Bernie] live at the property. I work there but live in Botany. I grow flowers at work and have a green lawn, green shrubs and low maintenance garden at home. Does Bokay mean ‘be okay’, or does it stand for: ‘Bernie (o)Kay’? Neither of the above! As well as (obviously) being a play on the word ‘bouquet’, the business name is because its owners (my mum and dad) were ‘both Kays’. What makes flowers perfect gifts for special occasions, including Mother’s Day?
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It’s like you’re giving the gift of emotion – from love and appreciation to sympathy and, in some cases, even just as an apology. It’s the communication of the deepest feelings in the most elegant manner; receiving flowers is so beautiful as no words need to be spoken. Which flowers were your mum’s favourites? Which flowers could you give a woman who had hectares of them? My mother [Pat] loved white lilies, however the last flowers I gave her – in hospital shortly before her passing – were pink roses and lisianthus to celebrate her 50th wedding anniversary. She loved them and I can still picture the bouquet today. You can’t go wrong with roses because they are so
traditional and beautiful. How did your family’s passion for flowers blossom? I was born in Kaitaia and moved to Pakuranga when I was four, starting at Riverhills School aged five. But just a few months later, we moved to Papua New Guninea as my father was posted there with the NZ Police. After we returned to NZ, we moved to Drury then on to Ramarama and that is where the flower farm began, from a five-acre plot of rugged land. I was 12 years old when Bokay flower Farms was born [in 1980]. My father always had a passion for nature. He wanted to farm animals, but the capital required to put dairying (for example) out of their reach. Being the amazing mother
and wife Mum was, she followed my father in his dream and they grew a beautiful business together. When did you join the business formally and what’s your role now? In 1993. My role is ‘a bit of everything’! I’m in packhouse processing flowers, in the greenhouse and doing deliveries as often as I’m in the office. Is your dad still involved? How hard has he found it to hand over the reins? Losing my mother was devastating, for all of us, for my father in particular. Mum was the glue that stuck us together and things are just not the same since. She fought a long, courageous www.eastlife.co.nz
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