Tremella Botanicals

I love the way floristry connects us to nature and makes us pause and appreciate what’s around us. Just like the mushroom I named my business after, I believe beautifully arranged botanicals can be healing and revitalising.

I opened Tremella Botanicals in 2018, after a number of years living in London, where I honed my skills with Hackney’s Rebel Rebel and the award-winning florist Yan Skates. After working on weddings and events for Stones of the Yarra Valley back in Melbourne, I decided to branch out on my own. Fun fact: I was a social worker in the community health sector before diving into floristry. It’s the opportunity to connect with people that I cherish most – meeting and working with lovely couples is definitely the best part of my job!

Tremella Botanicals mixes Western and Eastern design philosophies. Japanese Ikebana, floral paintings by the Dutch masters, as well as Australia’s unique landscape constantly inspire me. I love to find harmony between soft, organic shapes and unusual sculptural elements (hence why you’ll spot the odd mushroom in my arrangements). Celebrating the natural world and embracing what the seasons provide is at the heart of all my designs. As such, you’ll often find me with my head in a bush, foraging for bits of foliage.

Running a low-impact business is at the forefront of my practice. Since the beginning, Tremella Botanicals has proudly been floral foam-free (that’s the toxic stuff traditionally used to keep arrangements in place). With the help of my clever partner Serge, I’ve found eco-friendly ways to create small and large-scale installations using  natural and reusable materials.

When sourcing my blooms, I go directly to local suppliers and growers wherever possible, to cut down on carbon miles. I also try to avoid bleached or dyed botanicals. It’s not widely known outside the floristry world, but these styles are created using some incredibly harmful chemicals (and the end product smells like it, too).

I steer clear of virgin plastic when packaging my flowers and opt for natural materials or recycled plastic where possible. I also compost green waste left over from any events – in fact, Serge uses some of this to grow delicious mushrooms!