14/08/2026
Catherine Meads is disturbed by the direction her industry has taken. Single use; throw away.
‘We have slipped into fast floristry. Quick convenient and cheap, like fast food. It has limited our skills – in both floristry and designing’.
Reuse, repurpose and redesigned now defines her art. Refusing single use plastics, floral foam, anything non-degradable.
She vividly remembers playing in nature – throwing helicopter seeds in the air, delighting in their aerial ballet, finding a seed, putting a rose thorn on her nose. Her beloved mother’s influence remains – 9 small siblings sent outside to discover the NZ bush.
Catherine utilised the COVID lockdown to explore globally. Other florists and artists were wilting in isolation.
Instead, she grabbed the opportunity to attend online courses with like-minded floristic peers.
From her computer screen in the Leschenault bush (in Australind, south-west Western Australia) Catherine learned from and competed against other international course participants. And was noticed by the internationally respected floristry icons leading them.
Swedish master florist Per Benjamin and renowned Canadian floral designer Hitomi Gilliam both prominent international collaborators, educators, and authors…Max van de Sluis, and Dutch Master Hanneke Frankeme, too.
She’d always made ephemeral installations.
Flowers, grasses, feathers, rocks found when camping in the outback. A bush gallery, an ephemeral sculpture left far beyond Leonora, so far out that coordinates needed to be remembered for a chance return.
‘There is something deeply satisfying about working this way, allowing the materials to guide decisions, understanding balance more intuitively, and seeing how thoughtful mechanics can support both beauty and sustainability’.
She recently visited Amsterdam for a Floristic Dialog Sustainable Masterclass with Max, Per, Hitomi, then to the USA working on 15 of Per’s installations.
Her work was front page of NZ Floral Art Magazine, and next year she’s international delegate in Sydney for the WAFA World Flower Show.
Catherine lives the ethos, ‘How can I create beauty while leaving the lightest possible footprint?’
Lyn Causer
Katts_eye_photography_1
