10/03/2026
Yesterday I pulled into a servo to fill the truck.
Diesel sitting up there on the big sign… $2.20 a litre.
You already know what sort of mood that can put people in.
As I walked in there was a bloke at the counter already wound up like a clock spring. Arms moving, voice getting louder with every sentence. By the time I joined the queue he’d pretty much solved the national fuel crisis, fixed the government and reorganised the economy… all while pointing at the poor lady behind the counter.
Let’s call him old mate Nev.
Now I’m not saying fuel isn’t expensive. It is.
But that lady behind the counter didn’t drill the oil.
She didn’t sail the tanker here.
And she definitely didn’t climb up the ladder and change the number on the big sign out the front.
She was just trying to get through her shift.
And the whole time Nev was going on, she just stood there calm as anything. Nodding politely, doing her job.
It made me think how often that happens in life.
People see a number they don’t like… and the person standing closest to it becomes the one they unload on.
Which made me think about something I was doing the night before.
Everyone had gone home from the nurseries. Forklifts quiet, phones finally stopped ringing for the day.
So I wandered out to the farm and stood there looking at a row of trees that have been part of my life for a while now.
Our Magnolia Teddy Bears.
And when I say a while… I mean six years.
Six years of watering them.
Six years of feeding them.
Six years of pruning them.
Six years of shifting them into bigger pots as they slowly turned from little plants into proper trees.
Six summers trying to keep them alive when the sun feels like it’s been turned up to BBQ mode.
Six winters walking the farm checking irrigation lines while they just sit there looking tough as anything.
That’s 2,190 days of growing.
And if you do the maths, selling them at $850 each works out to about 39 cents a day.
Thirty-nine cents a day to water them, feed them, prune them, shift them around the farm and keep them alive through heatwaves and storms.
To be honest… that probably hasn’t even covered my water bill.
But that’s how growing trees works.
You play the long game.
And these aren’t little plants anymore.
These are big Magnolia Teddy Bears. Proper feature trees.
So big they only just squeeze into our big truck, and even then we can’t load many because they’ve grown into some pretty serious trees.
The kind that stop people walking past a garden.
🌿 Magnolia grandiflora ‘Teddy Bear’
Evergreen tree.
Glossy deep green leaves with that beautiful velvet brown backing underneath.
Huge creamy white fragrant flowers through summer.
They’ll grow roughly 4–6 metres tall and about 2–3 metres wide, which makes them perfect as a feature tree, screening tree or a classy driveway entrance.
We’ve already sold some wholesale at the same price, which means you’ll probably see them popping up around the region in nurseries for $1500 or more.
But we sell them direct from our 2 nurseries and we have heaps in stock now.
Anyway…
Back to the servo.
After old mate Nev finished his speech and stormed out the door, I stepped up to the counter and said,
“Sorry about that… he shouldn’t have done that to you.”
She looked at me and said something that stuck with me.
“I’m glad you were standing there. You made me feel safe.”
I laughed and said,
Me … made you feel safe. I’m just a big teddy bear who loves trees and people.”
We ended up chatting for a minute while the pump ticked away outside.
Then she said something that made me smile.
By the way “I love teddy bears.”
I said, “Really? Want to see mine?”
She looked confused and now a little weirded out..
So I pulled out my phone and showed her photos of these big Magnolia Teddy Bears growing on the farm.
Her face lit up straight away.
“They’re beautiful,” she said.
Then came the questions everyone asks.
How Big?…. “About 3mts and chunkier than me”
“How much?”
When I told her $850, she looked at them again and said,
“That’s actually a bloody good price… but I could never afford one.”
And that’s the truth.
Not everyone can.
But the whole conversation stuck with me on the drive home.
Because the world can feel a bit heavy some days.
Fuel prices.
Bills.
Stress.
People snapping at each other.
We can’t change everything that’s going on out there.
But we can choose how we treat the people standing in front of us.
Kindness still matters.
So tomorrow I might just swing back past that servo again.
And I might just walk in carrying a little Teddy Bear plant for her.
Not one of the big $850 ones. It wont fit in her car..
Just a little one a cute one, we have some around 1.2mts tall for $165.. baby teddys.
Because sometimes the world doesn’t need another rant.
Sometimes it just needs a small act of kindness… and a teddy bear. 🌿🐻
FREE HUGS with our Teddys instore
Shepparton 535 Archer Rd Kialla
Echuca 13-15 Northern Hwy
