THERE SHE GROWS
A florist reveals the art of wreath-making
It’s 6pm on an almost balmy spring evening in Clevedon. Carol Gibbard’s roses are filtered with sepia light and the grass carpet under their gnarled trunks is littered with fat blooms and buds knocked clean off during the recent storm. Although the latest chapter of turbulent weather delivered needed rain, the gales dampened the first November flush of her intensely scented David Austin roses.
Expecting the unexpected is all part of the flower-growing business, as are bugs and blight. “During my second season in business, my roses were really sick, they looked just horrible,” she recalls as she goes about her business of snipping and clipping, up and down thick rows of heady roses, in her well-worn gumboots. That was when she began searching for more natural remedies for her roses. “There are so many sprays available at the hardware store, it gets really confusing and I’d found none of them to be that effective.”
Another grower tipped her off about Wally Richards, the gardening guru from the Manawatū whose weekly articles on his website, Gardenews.co.nz, offer straightforward advice on dealing with plant problems, as well as natural products to improve soil health.
The discovery of two of Wally’s formulations — Magic Botanic Liquid and Fruit and Flower Power revived her roses at the last minute. To save herself the labour of hand spraying, Carol got innovative with an old car battery. “I set up a bilge pump and attached it to a car battery and then loaded it up with neem oil, pyrethrum and Magic Botanic Liquid.”
Wally’s infusions and Carol’s inventions have done wonders for Carol’s crops in the past few years and apart from applying his potions and compost, she mostly leaves the garden to its own devices. “I’m a bit rip, s**t and bust when it comes to gardening. I kill the odd thing, but as long as your soil is healthy, your plants will grow.”
Of course wind can be an enemy to any flower crop so when Carol planted her roses and other various picking flowers some six years ago, her first priority was to set up a screening fence.
“It was a bit of a family affair. I had my brother erect a possum fence and wind break, I had family and locals help me dig the flower beds and Mum lent me $8000 to start the business.”
Today, it’s hard to imagine Carol doing anything else but tending to her flowers and arranging them into fantastical arrangements for floral orders, weddings and events, but it has been a relatively recent career change for the mother of three.
Her previous corporate incarnation as a general manager for a pharmaceutical company set her up well for managing her current business, Branch and Bloom
— an owner-operator company that grows and supplies flowers for all her floral endeavours.
“I developed a bit of an itch for floristry after I had my children. I started following Susanne Hatwood from @the_blue_carrot on Instagram — I just love her aesthetic. She also grows flowers for her bridal floristry business. We had the land, so thought, ‘why not give it a go?’.”
Also motivated by Californian florist Nicole Land from @soilandstem, Carol signed up for a floristry course that was held at Gisborne’s Field of Roses — a small flower farm and floral design studio led by a mother-and-daughter duo.
“I was blown away by the Field of Roses, it’s a must-visit spot for anyone interested in gardening,” she enthuses.
The floristry gene runs in Carol’s Dutch bloodlines, specifically her Aunt Dieneke, who is a florist in the Netherlands. The daughter of Dutch immigrants, Carol recalls many trips back to their homeland, where she was enchanted by Dieneke’s floral prowess and growing knowledge — she still contacts her today if she’s having problems in the plot. Dieneke also advised Carol on what annuals and perennials to grow when she first established the garden in 2005. “She taught me to trust in my ability and to take a compliment.”
Carol’s abilities have set her in good stead to branch out the business to a flower truck retail outlet that operates three days a week on Whitford-Maraetai Rd.
“It was really a response to Covid, when the wedding business disappeared. Now it’s an additional income earner and it gives me the ability to be more mobile if I have extra stock.”
You might also see Carol foraging the Whitford roadside for wild flowers or anything else she spots that would make a whimsical addition to her work. “I think that’s what sets me apart, I’ll often throw in a touch of whimsy, like a bit of nigella or flowering pieris, or now and then a dab of smokebush.”
Spurred by the interest and recent demand for dried floral work, Carol also has a heavenly- smelling home studio where she dries flowers for wreaths and larger installations. As for weddings, she is kept busy with events at local Kauri Bay Boomrock and at The Glasshouse, Morningside — a stunning botanically inspired event space. If that’s not enough to keep her petal to the metal, Carol is launching a subscription bouquet service for customers who want a weekly garden bouquet — not just any old bunch, blooms guaranteed to smell like oldfashioned roses.
“When I get my hands on flowers, it’s so rewarding. It makes all the hard work worthwhile,” she says, drifting off back down a lush row of fragrant, creamy
blooms.