Studio 24 - Central Otago NZ Dish the Dirt

I have been a florist for over 25 years but have had a love for flowers all my life, my earliest memories would be picking from our large garden on the farm I grew up on. I went straight into floristry from school and was traditionally trained. I moved to Wanaka and my sole focus had been weddings for the last 16 years up until covid.
About 6 years ago we purchased the land I grow on now and always had a vision to grow blooms for my floral design. Growing primarily hard to source garden blooms and in particular dahlias was the goal. Covid hit and I pivoted to selling online retail and growing a more diverse range of blooms in a small cutting garden and then selling excess flowers to other local florists. I am so lucky to have such amazing relationships with the fellow florists and other local growers in the area.
I am really passionate about locally and sustainably grown blooms and supplying high quality flowers not just for couples who are my clients but other florists and their clients who get to use and see our amazing blooms.
We also sell tubers from our dahlias each year and are developing our own hybridised varieties with the focus being on more wedding style blooms as the clients we supply to are mainly florists for weddings and my own clients getting married.
We are also wanting to grow a range of blooms for seed and see a need for less imported seeds and more self sufficient production in New Zealand - something I hope to delve more into over the coming years.