I decided to grow cut flowers in March last year. But really it’s something that was always there in my head. I grew up in a family who grew flowers for pleasure. My nana was my biggest influence. While I’ve dabbled in growing food, it’s flowers that had the most appeal.

In 1987 I visited a flower shop called Blume or Bloom; I really can’t remember. It was in Dunedin, maybe it’s still there. It was a long narrow shop in a lovely colonial building. It had big black and white floor tiles and a very tall ceiling. The room was cool and dark. There were buckets and buckets of fresh flowers on either side of the shop, all the way from the door to the counter, right at the back. I remember the flowers being on boxes or shelves, stacked up high. When you walked into the shop, your shoes tapping on the stone floor, it felt like walking through a forest. The scent was intoxicating. It seemed incredible that such a small space could transport a person to a different world. The memory of this shop has stayed with me ever since. I feel sure that I’m trying to bring it alive in our little shop on Karori Road.

So I started sowing seeds and bulbs in March 2023. I went to work in the Paekakariki garden building kit-set garden beds and digging new gardens. I was teaching then and I’d come home from work and then spend another hour or two in the garden. It was exhausting. I recorded everything I sowed in a special book. I had no idea how or where I’d sell my flowers. I emailed all the local markets but they were full up. There was already someone selling bunches of flowers in Paekakariki so that was a no go. I was unperturbed. Somehow I’d make it happen.

And then as suddenly as I started I stopped. I think it was May or June 2023. Let’s call it a family emergency. I was consumed by this situation until November. Really it consumed me. I stopped sowing seeds and making gardens.

One day in November, Sophie and I were chatting over a cup of tea. We were talking about flowers. Both of our gardens were full of them. I still had all the flowers from my early seed sowing. We decided to pool our flowers, make bunches, and sell them from the front of my Karori garage. A kind of garage sale. We set up our shop on the first Saturday in December. We had no idea what we were doing. And we definitely weren’t florists.

The very first flower shop, first Saturday in December, 2023.

The first flower sale went so well we decided to have another one the following Saturday. We kept going until Christmas. We closed for 3 weeks and then opened up again in mid January. By then I’d emptied out the garage and we’d turned it into a shop. I made a sign. I made a Facebook and instagram page. Our shop was a thing. People messaged us for flowers during the week.

We were contacted by the journalist Julie Jacobson. She wrote a piece on us for The Post column ‘My Wellington’. It was published on Valentines Day. We felt very lucky.

https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/350161231/my-wellington-friends-have-nostalgia-bunches

Sophie had a family emergency which took her to France. She left in March. I kept the shop open every Saturday until the end of April. Since then I’ve been busy to the point of exhaustion. Sowing seeds and bulbs, weeding, making new gardens, planting seedlings and perennials, keeping a regular flower delivery going (worrying that I’ll completely run out of flowers), keeping our loyal customers entertained on social media, making cards, making a sign for the footpath, sowing more seeds and bulbs and seedlings, weeding, reading about flower growing, listening to flower-growing podcasts, making bulb filled containers and bowls, opp-shopping for the flower shop, keeping dogs off the flower beds and blackbirds from digging up my bulbs and seedlings (both a work in progress), and still more seed and bulb sowing and seedling planting and weeding. It doesn’t stop. But I love it.

Sophie came back in June.

The early daffodils are flowering. There aren’t enough of them for bunches of flowers (but I could be wrong - every day there is something new). The hyacinths and miniature Iris’s are starting to flower. The tulip leaves are pushing up through the soil…Very soon there’ll be lots of flowers and it’ll get very very busy.

We’ve formed an informal group with some other small flower growers. All of us are starting out. It’s a great feeling having other flower growing friends. We’re talking about doing a pop-up shop together in the next few weeks, while our flower supplies are low.

It’s almost spring. There are buds on all the deciduous trees and shrubs. There’s something heartwarming about buds. The promise of the near future, of longer warmer days. Nonetheless, the garden in Karori looks very empty and brown at the moment, the garden at Paekakariki, less so.

Seasons. I love the yearly cycle. The changes. Knowing that spring follows winter like the dawn follows the dark. I like to work with nature. Respect the worlds in my gardens. Create lots of wild spaces for all the critters that live there. Suburban gardens can change the world, if only people knew what was possible.

P.S. I’m having technical difficulties merging my old blog posts with this lastest one. Eventually I’ll figure it out.