The Ararat Cottage Flower Farm grows seasonal cut flowers for wholesale and retail florists in Ballarat, Ararat and Stawell as well as bridal parties.

Flower Farm owner Angie Rolfe said it had been "a year of crazy weather on top of a generally crazy year".

"We have lots of loyal local customers who are patiently waiting for our late summer/autumn season to really kick in," Mrs Rolfe said.

"I often ask myself why I'm running a business that depends so much on mother nature.

"She sure creates a lot of challenges and often disappointments, to a small-scale organic flower grower."

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Mrs Rolfe said in the previous 12 months the Cottage Farm has felt the burden of the extreme weather.

"A La Nina year meant lots of rain and cooler temps in winter and spring, we were prepared for that," she said.

"But with that comes a lack of heat and sunlight meaning spring flowers are slower growing and running late.

"We also save our own seed for sale and our own use so later crops meant we couldn't save as much seed as we usually would.

"November and January rains created a warm and moist environment which contributed to a significant loss in one of our most popular crops - a rapid spread of Snapdragon rust."

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Mrs Rolfe said although the wet conditions of recent months created ideal breeding conditions for many crop pests, the Cottage Farm didn't use chemical fungicides or pesticide sprays.

"Aphids were expected to be our biggest pest and can do significant damage to stems, buds and open flowers," she said.

"We've been so grateful to see a significant increase in ladybug breeding as well this year and their increased presence has suppressed all aphid populations from any damage."

Mrs Rolfe said she was grateful she didn't experience the devastation of other growers in the state.

"With the heavy deluges we saw in recent storms, came problems such as soil erosion from the flower beds," she said.

"I lost a crop of gladiolus because the heavy rain in early January washed the soil off the corms and they all just fell over. At that same time I also lost a lot of soil from my dahlia beds which left over 100 tubers uncovered and exposed.

"We recently encountered an incredible hail storm with the largest hailstones I have ever seen which damaged a lot of plants, obliterated saleable flowers and buds, and broke stems many of which didn't recover.

"We are grateful we can pick ourselves up and learn from our experiences."

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