Floristry was the perfect avenue for Jane Lampe to channel the soul of her family’s country home in Narrabri into a fully-fledged business. Nearly ten years ago, when the former town-planner launched Floreat, it was an online side business based in her North Bondi garage. Since then, it has flourished into a vibrant expression of Lampe’s country roots, with a broad online clientele and a workshop situated in the narrow streets of Darlinghurst.
“I grew up on a farm where we grew crops, and we had a nice garden, so I guess that was my way of bringing my country life to the city,” says Lampe.
The “small-town in a big city” vibe and proximity to client events is what drew Lampe to Darlo. “It’s a perfect location,” she says. “It’s so close to the city.”
Floreat’s arrangements are elegant and modern, with roughly 95 per cent of the flowers originating from local growers. Lampe believes in using native flowers as much as she can, for their distinctive character, and it’s part of her commitment to a more environmentally conscious business.
“At the moment I’m really loving the Daphne. It’s got a beautiful scent,” she says, but Floreat’s popular arrangements vary with the seasons. The vibrant hues of the ‘Bright and Gorgeous’ arrangement ($100) reigns supreme on cold and wet days, while the whimsical pastels of the ‘Rustic’ arrangement ($100) is a widely-favoured summertime bouquet.
Where possible, Lampe tries to keep flowers looking “as natural as possible” in their original natural state. “We do what the flower’s telling us to do,” she says. “We like to make things look really unique and modern, with a bit of an organic, rustic twist.”
The bulk of Floreat’s orders are for weddings, corporate events, weekly arrangements. Notable clients include Swarovski, Fairfax Media and the Football Federation of Australia.
While most of her customers order flowers from her online store, the garage-style workshop is a great space to come in and witness the magic that goes into creating each arrangement.
“We get goosebumps every day from our job,” says Lampe. “Just putting together different combinations that we’ve never done before that work really well.”