A Day In The Life At Thistle & Weeds
Tucked in the folds of the Dandenong Ranges, our flower farm begins each day long before the world fully wakes. Here at Thistle & Weeds, floristry is more than arranging blooms. It is a quiet rhythm of growing, noticing, and sending something wild and beautiful out into the world.
5am — Before the Light
The dogs stir before dawn does. I slip on my trusty crocs and wander into the field, the air cool and still. Petals remain folded in sleep, a soft reminder that beauty, like everything, has its own timing. These early moments are for observation, to see what has changed overnight, what is ready to harvest, and what the season is whispering next.
6am — Golden Hour Harvest
As sunlight creeps across the beds, I begin the morning harvest. Each stem is cut by hand, slow-grown ranunculus, unfurling poppies, and textural foliage. Every flower is chosen intentionally, one by one, for the day’s orders. It is in this quiet hour that the farm hums with its most peaceful energy: bees waking, birds calling, light spilling golden across the rows.
8am — Studio Awakening
Buckets fill the studio, the scent of fresh blooms mingling with coffee and soft music. Here, each stem is stripped, trimmed, and given time to drink. Notes are written, messages of love, sympathy, or celebration, ready to travel alongside the flowers. By now, the morning hum deepens. It is the heartbeat of a working studio, alive with colour and intent.
10am — Composing Beauty
Arranging begins, blooms coming together like poems of colour and form. Each bouquet carries a little of the field within it: the rain, the soil, the slow patience of growth. Sweet notes are tucked in, ribbons tied, and soon the car is filled with beauty ready to be delivered across the hills.
11:30am — Delivering Joy Across the Ranges
The quiet mountain roads of the Dandenong Ranges become my delivery path. Each bouquet meets its moment, a doorstep surprise, a gesture of love, a way to say what words cannot. It is my favourite part of the day, carrying something grown by hand into the lives of others.
2pm — Midday Stillness
Back home, the garden hums beneath the midday sun. A quick lunch, a breath, and a moment to simply look, to notice the bees on the dahlias, the gentle rustle of leaves, the soft sigh of the field in summer.
3pm — The Work Behind the Beauty
The afternoon is for tending: weeding, deadheading, mulching, watering. The unseen work that sustains the bloom. This is where floristry and farming meet, hands in the soil, heart in the art. It is slow, grounding work, and it is where the next week’s beauty begins.
6pm — Dusk and Gratitude
As light softens, I take one last wander. Petals close, hills fade into the distance. I make quiet lists, what to harvest tomorrow, what to remember, what to be grateful for. Behind every bouquet is a day like this, a rhythm of tending, noticing, and gathering beauty from the land.
Grown and Gathered in the Dandenong Ranges
At Thistle & Weeds, every bouquet tells the story of the land it came from. Locally grown, artfully composed, and delivered fresh across the Dandenong Ranges and Outer East Melbourne.
