ANDREA’S GARDEN PICKS

“The trick to creating lovely ‘ flower’ arrangements from a native- only garden is using a mix of foliage, as natives seldom have big, beautiful blooms. Try a contrasting collection of leaf sizes and textures, such as a combination of wispy and floppy foliage such as broom, flax or protrate kōwhai. This makes a lovely casual, free-form display. I find virtually any native leaf forms a good backdrop for a vase, but ferns are the queens of foliage. “The only native flower I use in a vase by itself is the hebe, and there certainly is a wide variety of them.”

Andrea and Pete’s favourite natives are marlborough rock daisies, lancewoods and rewarewa.