Georgie Empringham first noticed the bright yellow ‘golden globe’ flowers, also called billy buttons, on the vast farming land her dad had worked on.

Enchanted by the idea of selling a few bunches of billy button bouquets, she opened up an Instagram, expecting only a handful of people placing their orders.

But what the 12-year-old never expected is selling more than 100 bouquets on her first day.

And now that the demand has gone through the roof, she enlisted the help of her 14-year-old sister, Amelia, and their mum, Sally.


Billy button wildflowers are native to Australia and New Zealand and they belong to the daisy family. They are perennial plants (which means they regrow every spring) described with narrow woolly leaves and golden globe-shaped flowers on long stout stems.

According to Georgie, these plants are poisonous to sheep and cattle once the heads mature, that is why picking the flowers would reduce the risks to the living stock around the area.

And since the plants are everywhere, blanketing almost the entire property with “millions” of yellow bright bulbs, they basically had an unlimited supply for their bouquets.

Georgie and her sister Amelia first thought of setting up a roadside stall to sell the flowers. However, their mother went against the idea, reasoning that it could take up a lot of their time and she would have preferred the girls to focus more on school.

So instead, Sally set them up an Instagram account – Belaringar Billy Buttons.

Expecting her kids to a few bunches of the home-picked wildflowers, she was surprised that more than a hundred orders came in on their first day.

And the waves of orders coming from all over the country never stopped. Soon, they were dealing with bulk requests from Tasmania, Victoria, and Queensland, many of them from fellow florists.

As the word for homegrown billy button bouquets continued to spread, they upgraded from Instagram to their own website to handle all of the orders.

At one point, their entire stock sold out in a 3-minute window.

Sally said that the girls have been quite busy, juggling school and managing their, rather unexpected, flower business.

During the holiday period, they would spend around five to seven days picking flowers on the field. But on days when they have classes, they reduce it to two to four afternoons per week.


Their flower-bundling business has already expanded to include a bunch of other hand-crafted items, such as hand-poured candles, resin-dried flower paperweights, fabric hat bands, and flower artworks.

And even though Georgie and her family gained a lot of success following their business venture, she said that she’s not here for the money.

“We do have a lot of fun doing it. We love being in the paddocks and we love the amazing messages that people send us, saying how the billy buttons have brightened their lives,” Georgie explained.

They also have donated a part of their earnings to the Royal Flying Doctors, a non-profit organisation that provides emergency medical and primary health care services to anyone who lives, works or travels in rural and remote Australia.

They also give back to their local community members who have helped them a lot with their flower business. They even donated a big box of billy buttons to the local hospital in Boggabri for the nurses.

“Dad said it was important to give back to people in need, as we have been so supported by our billy button community,” the 12-year-old added.

Picking season has now come to a close, however, we are sure we will see plenty more of Georgie and her Billy Buttons next year.