The Full Story

SOME YEARS ARE FOR GROWING,
BUT THIS ONE,
THIS ONE IS FOR BLOOMING.

Hi, I’m Kat, and this is my heart project. The Wildest Bloom grew out of a love for flowers and a need for something gentler—for the earth, and for myself.

flowers sutherland

Raised garden bed

Painting the first ever raised garden bed

flowers sutherland

1/9

How it began

I grew up on a sugar cane farm in Queensland, spending long hours in my grandma’s garden where I’d press cornflowers between the pages of old books while she made pikelets. Those sun-drenched moments were simple and soft—and they stayed with me, even as life pulled me far from that quiet.

In the years since, I’ve lived through heartbreak, complex trauma, and loss I would never have imagined. I’ve known a darkness I nearly didn't survive. But I did. And flowers helped show me the way back. They reminded me that healing doesn’t have to be loud or fast. It can come quietly, slowly—at nature’s pace.

I started planting flower seeds (with no idea) in the common areas of my Cronulla unit block, right there on Elouera Road at the beginning of spring 2024—filling every inch of soil I could find. What began as a sweet addition to my event styling business quickly became something far more personal. It grounded me, it gave me something beautiful to tend to (and I made friends with a lot of wonderful people while I was gardening as they walked past).

And then

I needed more space, so in the laid back, quietness of Kurnell I found a little cottage. A place where I created my garden project over 6 months, when disaster struck!...I could no longer grow there. Determined to keep my dream alive, I set to finding the right home for my family and my garden project. Uprooting hundreds of plants and seedlings into individual pots, a temporary set up at a friends trucking yard of all places was my saving grace. Forever thankful. A quaint old sandstone cottage had me imagining a picket fence with an old english style rose garden entrance, so in a whirlwind of activity The Wildest Bloom called Sutherland home.

Now rather than your standard straight rowed cutting garden, an Alice in Wonderland style cutting maze was designed. A living tapestry where nature thrives and stories unfold while letting nature lead in its own crazy way.

Embracing the rhythm of the seasons and using no shortcuts, The Wildest Bloom is proudly foam-free, plastic-conscious, low-waste, low-water use committed, herbicide and pesticide free, flowering in a way that builds the local ecological systems and rebuilds damaged soil structure and encourages local wildlife/pollinators to pop in. Organic, no till, sustainable practices results in land that is rich in fertility and health. We're part of a new movement in floristry that challenges harmful industry norms.

Floral foam? It’s a microplastic disaster. Imported blooms? Often flown thousands of kilometres, wrapped in plastic, and drenched in pesticides. Not here.

At The Wildest Bloom, floristry becomes a conversation with the earth — a slower, kinder, more conscious way of creating beauty - each petal a gentle protest and a hopeful offering.

Join our mailing list to find out how our adventure is going, what's blooming in our little garden project and where our pop up shops are. Show your support for a local, sustainable business. Everything done with love (and compost).