Friends with flowers

Words by Andrea Martinello

Image credit: @filmandfoliage

Do you remember that scene at the beginning of Alice in Wonderland, the 1951 animated version, when Alice falls asleep in a meadow of daises?

Her tiny kitten is running around through the daisy stems and stops to peer through the white petals above, the sun shining through.

“I remember as a kid watching this scene and then crying because it was over. I made my friends rewind the video again and again because I wanted to keep hearing Alice sing about making a home amongst the flowers,” Ashlee Wheelhouse said.

“I love the idea of being enveloped by nature. 

“Now I love creating a whole room experience with overgrown and hanging flowers and plants with my designs and installations.” 

Image credit: @botanicabird

Skipping forward to sometime in the late 2000s at the University of Wollongong. Rachael Cullen is sitting in one of her classes for a Bachelor of Fine Arts, taking in every word about artists like Andy Goldsworthy.

“I loved studying artists that used botanical and natural forms for an artwork and then draw from them as they decayed over time,” she said.

Ash and Rach are both Newcastle-based florists who are great friends, each other’s professional confidants and together shaking up Australian floristry. 

However, they both have differing experiences, goals and opinions regarding the industry.

Ash and Rach shared their insight as florists in Newcastle, how social media changed the industry and their mission to make sustainable floristry widespread in the second edition of The Everyday Project: Newcastle.

Sharing secrets: The Newcastle floristry scene

Technically Ash and Rach are competitors, right? 

In one corner we have Ash, founder of Film & Foliage, a style that’s described as wild, textured and organic while featuring a more muted colour palate.

Annnddd in the other corner we have Rach, founder of Botanica Bird and is someone who favours bold colours, shapes and juxtaposing floral combinations.

But if you follow both Ash and Rach on social media, you will see that this whole competitor narrative is completely made up.

The truth is that they don’t hold back in the slightest when sharing information about their practices and business. 

They both run a platform that educates and entertain their audience, which consists of clients, fellow florists, and us regular Joanne’s who love pretty flowers on our feeds.

Image credit: @filmandfoliage

Rach felt like her experience studying floristry at Sydney TAFE and her first freelance gigs were very open and encouraged experimentation with new trends.

Whereas Ash had a completely different experience.

“The course at Kurri Kurri TAFE was very traditional, and it didn’t align with the wild and natural designs I was interested in learning about. 

“For my last assessment we had to make a wedding bouquet which I was really proud of, but my teacher tore it apart. I walked out of the class and threw it in the bin. I remember hearing the class gasp as I did it,” Ash laughed.

This rigid theme continued when she entered the workforce running the floristry department of a wedding styling company.

“I was working for older florists who were averse to sharing information. I thought that it was an unwritten rule that we don’t talk to other florists.

“When I started meeting younger florists like Rach, who was not at all hesitant to share information with me, I began to open up as well.”

According to both Ash and Rach, “our generation has shaken things up” and they both agree that social media had a significant role to play.

The social (media) dilemma 

“If it wasn’t for social media, particularly Instagram, I wouldn’t be where I am today,” Rach said

While working at a call centre Rach would doodle on her notepad while on the phone. 

“I was drawing flowers and botanicals then posting them on my personal Instagram account and that’s the beginnings of Botanica Bird.”

As we know from our weekly screen time reminders, social media can be taxing and at the same time something we can’t escape.

“Social media is a full-time job,” Rach said.

“I am a small business, that means we are everything – the creators, admin, marketing, accounting – and adding social media on top of that is a huge job.”

Ash interjected saying she has a completely different perspective.

“I find it all really fascinating and super educational. To me, it’s just another part of my job that I do along with responding to emails, for example.”

The conversation trails off down a dystopian tangent about the Netflix documentary ‘The Social Dilemma’ and how we are merely ‘products’ to the social media giants. It got dark.

“But on the other hand,” Ash said attempting to pull the metaphorical blindfold back over our eyes, “I found that 90% of my enquiries come from Instagram – it’s free marketing and I’m still going to take advantage of it.” 

Image credit: @botanicabird

Continuing down the path of positivity, social media has become an educational tool, connecting florists around the world to get the sustainable floristry movement off the ground – Search #nofloralfoam on Instagram for examples!

Using social media as a tool to educate themselves, Ash and Rach are now leaders in this space, using their platform to promote an environmental ethos and encouraging others to do the same.

“Together, we’re shaking up the industry”

“The industry needs to be shaken up because social media trends have gone from 0 to 100 and people aren’t realising the toll it takes on the environment,” Rach said.

At this point of the conversation, Rach’s voice takes a firm tone, her posture straightens, and her words gain a conviction.

“We don’t have to focus on overseas trends that require massive amounts of imported flowers. You can have epic flowers and amazing installations by embracing flowers that are grown in our own soil.

You can read more of Andrea’s musings on her website here.