First Look: SPIRAL Botanicals

Posted on 3 May, 2022

Hidden in the heart of New Acton, a precinct that blends cultural experiences perfectly with nature, a rewilding awaits.

SPIRAL Botanicals—a florist that celebrates contemporary floral art and design—has bloomed, bringing the wildness and beauty of nature to the city streets.

Owned and operated by 23-year-old Greta Kerr and 29-year-old Caitlin Buckler-Jones, SPIRAL came to life in 2021 after the pair realised they wanted to help make the floristry industry a more beautiful and sustainable place.

Prioritising locally grown and seasonal flowers to create stunning bespoke arrangements that manifest the beauty of life, Greta and Caitlin say they are returning to what is wild, natural, and grown without the usual floristry rules.

“A poppy blooms in a field simply because it blooms, not because somebody else is there to see it,” explains Greta. “And that’s what we perceive as being the true purpose and meaning behind flowers.”

“Rewilding is about making the most of natural beauty, rather than structuring it, wiring it, and trying to create it in a shape that’s not natural,” adds Caitlin.

Caitlin Buckler-Jones and Greta Kerr. Photography: Lydia Downe of Studio Downe (@lydiadownecreative)

Allowing nature to completely influence their work, the bespoke arrangements from SPIRAL are inspired by seasonality and are supplied from micro-growers in Canberra and the surrounding region.

Offering the choice of bouquets inspired by the colours of chilli (reds, oranges, and yellows), berries (pinks, purples, and blues), lime (greens, whites, and cream) nectarine (oranges, pinks, and yellows) and eggplant (purples, mauves, blues, and whites), no two bouquets are the same.

“A lot of other florists do something that is referred to as floristry by numbers,” says Caitlin. “You order a bouquet on their website and every single time you’re going to get three yellow roses, three chrysanthemums, three of this and three of that.”

“It takes away the creativity, the seasonality, and choice of a florist as well. The entire industry is about creating emotional moments and supporting people at important times in their life and we think that flowers should reflect that.”

Photography: Lydia Downe of Studio Downe (@lydiadownecreative)

Along with the vibrant colour options, SPIRAL also offers a signature style bouquet: a wild, organic, and unexpected mixture of texture and design that reflects the natural world and lets creativity run free.

According to Greta and Caitlin, the idea behind their artistry is to help customers to focus on the uniqueness of the bouquet rather than the individual flowers.

“We’d like them to focus on the beautiful arrangement, how everything fits together, how it reflects the weather, the beautiful growers that we do have, and their availability,” says Caitlin.

By selling flowers and foliage from local growers, the pair are also minimising their carbon footprint and bringing sustainability to the forefront of floristry.

Presenting their bouquets in 100% biodegradable gift-wrapping or in a glass vase, drying arrangements in-store without the addition of any harsh chemicals or dyes, and offering green waste to people who can repurpose leftover stock and scraps are just some of the sustainable practices they implement to make a difference in a “wasteful” industry.

“I think all businesses need to be sustainable and not just greenwashed at the forefront,” says Greta.

“When you think about a florist business, how can it not be sustainable and not be a celebration of the environment and what mother nature has to offer us? I think that has to be at the core of it.”

With every aspect of the shop thoughtfully curated by the duo (from the minimalist yet modern fit-out they designed themselves to the handmade ceramics on display), SPIRAL and its ethos also connects to the customers as Greta and Caitlin seek to find the hidden passion behind each purchase.

“It’s always about the person, the event…there’s always a reason behind gifting a bouquet, and Caitlin and I try to find that reason to inform the creation of it. We just really try to perceive floristry as an art form, and the medium is flowers,” says Greta.

Celebrate nature and nurture with SPIRAL this year by gifting the ‘mother’ in your life fresh, locally grown blooms spiralled with love. Via Facebook.

In SPIRAL Botanicals you’ll find a rewilding of contemporary floral design—but ultimately the two-woman team wants to help people return to art and emotion by celebrating love and human connection.