Bush Flowers

Australian Flowers and Foliage for Decoration and Design

By Cassandra Hamilton & Michael Pavlou

Australian flowers are truly unique. Banksias and flannel flowers, wattle and waratahs all offer their own magic of colour, shape and texture. All across this country there is botanical beauty right in front of us.

Native flora and foliage offer a beautiful alternative in the sustainability-challenged cut-flower industry. Our diverse landscape and climate produce incredible flowers that inspire our gardens and fuel our creativity. Here are over 50 plant profiles with notes on growing, cutting, conditioning, arranging and drying, with florists’ insights on what makes them so special.

Bush Flowers will give you everything you need to bring Australian native plants into your home, and to see the bush around you in all its beauty.

About the Author

Cassandra Hamilton is a florist and writer with an enduring love for plants. Throughout her career, spanning many industries from conservation to landscaping, floristry, design and media, the Australian bush has been a constant source of inspiration. Australian flowers are her passion and she is a big proponent of sustainable, local floristry. Her favourite flower is a flannel flower.

Michael Pavlou is a flower grower and retailer. He founded Bush Flowers in Carlton North in 2019. Michael has spent over twenty years working in the flower industry and has a love for banksias, which he produces on his farm in northern Victoria. His favourite flower is the Australian firewheel tree, Stenocarpus sinuatus.