Wonky Box Launches 'Wonky Flowers' to Combat Floral Waste

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It started with lettuce. Now it’s flowers. Wonky Box New Zealand, the quirky produce disruptor known for rescuing twisted carrots and freakishly large parsnips, is turning its attention to the blooms we gift, grieve with, and guiltily forget to water. Emerge 'Wonky Flowers'!

Source: Wonky Box - Wonky Flowers - Image showing Angus Simms - Co-Founder Wonky Box

The idea sprouted just after Valentine’s Day when the team got a call, not from a wholesaler panicking over a spinach glut, but from Southern Fresh. And this time, the message wasn’t about mesclun. Their sister company, Burwood, one of New Zealand’s top flower growers (just down the road from planetfood.news offices too), was sitting on greenhouses packed with petal-perfect stems with nowhere to go. Some were too short. Others too curly. Most were simply victims of undelivered market expectations.

Sound familiar? It’s the same old story - good product, wrong spec, and another truckload headed for the compost heap. Only this time, it’s chrysanthemums and Lisianthus being left behind, not kumara.

Enter Wonky Flowers, a subscription-style bloom box delivering fresh, seasonal, slightly rebellious stems straight to your door. Each bundle is farm-packed, foliage-forward, and just wonky enough to stand out in a sea of clone-perfect floristry.

Angus Simms, co-founder of Wonky Box, says the move was inevitable. “We’ve seen this before in fresh produce. Strict aesthetic standards, inflexible forecasting, and no backup plan when nature grows more than the market ordered. Flowers are just another victim of a broken system.”

Source: Wonky Flowers - Saved from the compost !!

The NZ flower industry is, in his words, under pressure. Grower numbers are shrinking, margins are tighter than a florist’s ribbon, and when demand doesn’t show up, waste spikes. Wonky Flowers gives those surplus stems a second life, while giving growers a consistent outlet and consumers a reason to grin midweek.

There’s no plastic wrap, no soulless supply chain, and no two boxes are quite the same. You get what’s blooming and what’s beautiful, but not always what a supermarket buyer would approve. And that’s exactly the point. It’s not just a bouquet. It’s a statement.

Stems with a story. Delivered nationwide. And probably arranged slightly off-centre by someone with a Spotify playlist called “Floristry Bangers Vol.1”.

Wonky Box isn’t just making waste beautiful, they’re turning a logistical headache into a feel-good feature. If this is the future of floristry, count us in.

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