Isabel Cahill

From the plateaus of France to the vibrant Sydney suburb of Leichhardt and the canola fields of Central West NSW, Isobel Cahill has a never-ending source of inspiration to draw upon. As a child, she relished the spoils of her parents’ garden and made posies to decorate every room in the house. After graduating from high school, she enrolled in a floristry course, securing a job as a florist and quickly establishing herself as a creative floral designer.

The recent lockdowns prompted a rethink for Isobel, who has now made her home at Narromine with her farming partner, John.

“COVID-19 gave me the time to think about how I wanted to put more effort into my floristry, so I started selling bunches of cotton, including to buyers in Sydney. I called my business La Petite Fleuriste as a nod to the five years I spent in France as a teenager with my family.”

Now running her business from home, Isobel combines purpose-grown blooms with farm-grown crops and native flora to make unique arrangements that capture the heart of rural Australia.

“I love being able to use crops and native foliage,” she says. “The contrast of Paterson’s Curse against the vibrant yellow of canola got me through winter and now all the cotton is starting to come out, I can’t wait to get my hands on a fresh bunch.”

Through hosting workshops, Isobel found that sharing her love of flowers was a great way to develop friendships. “I held my first flower crown workshop last year,” she says. “Since then, a lot of women – young and old – have been in touch. With COVID, people are spending more time in their homes with fresh flowers to brighten up their lives.”