MY FLORISTRY STYLE
The florie way
I love living alongside the seasons because it means pausing to notice what’s flowering and how the garden changes each week. Florie is my way of bringing a little piece of the season inside, using seasonal flowers grown nearby.
When I'm choosing flowers for the week, there's usually one blooming beautifully that catches my eye, and I build the bunch around it. I choose others to go with it, looking at their shapes, textures and colours, and mixing fuller flowers with lighter stems. I gather them into a loose bunch, leaving room for each flower to be seen and a stem or two to wander.
I love the thought of a big, slightly overgrown field of flowers that makes you want to walk through and see what’s growing. That’s the feeling I hope to bring to my bunches. Something relaxed and never too perfect, with little details to discover, as though the flowers have just been picked from the garden.
Pastels are always a favourite, but I love trying different colour combinations too. Sometimes the flowers look lovely together in a way I hadn’t expected. Choosing what’s in season leaves room for those little surprises.
"You’ll often find me with flowers tucked into one arm, a coffee in one hand and my little boy’s hand in the other."
Hi, I'm Alice.
What were you doing before florie?
Before Florie, I worked in event management. I dabbled in weddings but spent most of my career organising campaigns, fundraising and advocacy events to help people without a place to call home in Adelaide. It was a rewarding job and one that I feel very privileged to have worked.
10 years in, my now husband and I chose to take a career break which for us, meant a big move overseas. We spent two and a half years in France, working together in a chalet hosting holiday-makers from the UK, and snowboarding in the Alps. We managed to fit in a heap of travel across Europe and the UK too. Looking back, these were perhaps some of our greatest adventures, full of memories that have formed one of the best chapters of our lives.
How did florie begin?
When we moved back home, I undertook a temporary administration job and the arrival of our little boy kept life very busy.
When it felt like time to make room for something creative again, I found my way to flowers.
Have flowers or gardens always been part of your life?
Gardens have always been part of my life. I grew up on a property with a vineyard, fam animals, an orchard and an enormous apple tree that we loved to climb as kids. I still remember my first little garden patch, planted with alyssum and purple statice.
What's your favourite part of making a bunch?
Being surrounded by flowers every day makes me happy but working with my hands and seeing how a bunch comes together is the part I love most. Then there’s imagining where it might land, who it’s for and the little bit of joy it could bring into someone elses day. I think my job is a pretty special one.