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Meet the personalities behind the most amazing gardens, businesses and ideas in the world of botany.

Katherine English in her garden with spears of Verbena bonariensis in the foreground

The florist’s garden | Katherine English’s multi-layered Ōtautahi Christchurch garden

Topping her much-loved cakes with homegrown flowers was the motivation behind baker Anna Worthington’s garden. Now her sprawling garden, with colour as a central thread, is a creative outlet of its own.

Vegetable garden in Martinboriugh - Glendower

Gardens, People

Working with the wild

At Glendower, a historic Martinborough property now open to the public, Jen Pudney has spent years uncovering an old garden while allowing a new one to evolve. Increasingly, that means making space for butterflies, insects and the plants that find their own way in.

Lucy and Jacob's garden wedding in Lower Hutt - Sage Journal

Books, Gardens, People

Growing together | Jacob and Lucy’s garden wedding

A year before their vows, Lucy and Jacob Sheehan were carving terraces into their sloping lawn, with a garden wedding in mind. The space now continues to evolve, thriving with native plants, vegetable beds and fruit trees.

Art, People

From garden to canvas | The More Things Change by painter Julie Battisti

For her new exhibition The More Things Change, painter Julie Battisti worked closely with Dunedin florist and flower grower Jolene of Estelle Flowers, building compositions from seasonal blooms, garden-grown stems and unexpected foliage before a brush ever touched the linen.

Spencer Falls of The Unlikely Florist in his flower studio surrounded by colourful cut flowers

Books, People

Art in motion | The Unlikely Florist

At 18, Spencer Falls left his family orchard in Hawke’s Bay to pursue a creative life, spanning acting, sculpture and floristry, in the United States.

Gardens, People

Enduring romance | Red Hill Cottage

How do you create a romantic cottage garden – with all the charm you would expect – while also facing the realities of hot summers and limited water? Landscape designer Ashley James shows us how careful planting can deliver beauty that stands up to the elements.

Gardens, People

From bare block to cottage garden in the Yarra Valley

From a bare block in the Yarra Valley, Emily Todd has created a romantic cottage garden alongside a productive kitchen garden, complete with chickens. She reflects on building it from scratch and the connections it has fostered within her community.

Hands-on flower cultivation in the working garden at Paradise Botanica.

Gardens, People

Paradise Botanica | A garden that rebuilt a life

Victoria Chammanee’s 'Paradise Botanica' garden is now open to the public through Secret Gardens. Once a site dominated by kikuyu and concrete, it’s now a biodiverse sanctuary. Victoria tells us about her approach to gardening, the work required to reshape her site, and how it quite literally helped to rebuild her life.