KATE BEZAR: Grandiflora keeps coming up everywhere at the moment.

SASKIA HAVEKES: Well we’ve been doing a bit of fashion week.

That’s right, I had coffee a couple of weeks ago with someone who’d just come back from the Romance Was Born show and raved about the incredible flowers.

Oh yes, that was an interesting one, a good collaboration, but it was pretty intense and a very early start. We had to all get together at about 3:30am to be there at 4am and they were all on time, which is unusual.

You’d be used to the early morning starts, but I imagine those fashion kids probably aren’t.

We’d actually had a bit of a run because we did the Kit Willow show the night before that. That was a really hard job. It was in the pouring rain and the show was outdoors and they didn’t have a wet weather contingency. They had a long table going down the driveway of [art dealer] Roslyn and Tony Oxley’s home, Carthona … Anyway, they had 15 models swinging out of the fig trees on really long swings so their toes were almost touching the waves as they came under the tree. It was really surreal and the lighting was extraordinary. We had to decorate the table mainly and the theme was ‘creatures of the night’, but not beautiful. It had to be a little bit Gothic looking, so we had all these boxed insects; moths, no butterflies apart from a few Ulysses butterflies, tarantulas, stick insects and quite gnarly-looking insects. Then we had lots of testtubes and specimen vases and Dutchman’s Pipe; a really unusual flower which is very hard to get and grows on a long vine, and lots of really unusual orchids and leaves. We were there from 2:30pm kinda of doing bits and then taking retreat from the rain, then doing bits and taking retreat, but we couldn’t really place anything till about 7:30pm at night. That part of the job … I suppose it’s like being a ballet dancer or someone who has to do a lot of preparation to make it look effortless. I always think, a few more pliés, a few more pliés, a few more pliés. Not than I’m a ballet dancer, but my mum was, and I think that sort of discipline comes into play when you have to keep going until you’ve perfected it and made it look really effortless. That’s how our flowers do look, like they’ve just been picked and put down, not overly worked. Often to make them look really natural is an art. It’s much harder than making them look really constructed. The Romance Was Born installation was very much a team effort as well.

How many in your team?

We’ve got seven and then a book-keeper and a couple of others. We really are like a tight family. I see more of everybody here than I do of my own family. Sometimes there can be up to seven people in [the shop] here working.

Are you kidding?

No. We just shuffle around like a jigsaw puzzle; it’s all, “Excuse-me-sorry-sorry.” In fact, I always thought it’d be interesting to put a camera up there on a busy day and replay how we all manoeuvre around this workbench. We get clients coming in and out as well to buy flowers. So anyway, that was a big week and then we went and did the Logies [TV Week Logie Awards] after that which was a contrast. It was 80 tables and that’s not a number we often do. We are doing another fairly large thing up in Brisbane for Leo Schofield for the Paris Opera Ballet. That’s 35 tables, but it’ll be a little more edgy because we’re also decorating the large waterway up in the Queensland Art Gallery. Doing something like that is always lovely and it’s such an open brief.

That’s a wonderful space there too. Do you know what you’re going to do? Waterlilies?

We are actually. We’re going to make these giant waterlily-like pads, have them anchored, and decorate them really simply with leaves and probably float candles in the middle.

What’s your creative process? Where do you start with something like that? Do you draw?

It’s pretty instantaneous really. I don’t do any drawing, I’m not a very good drawer, I wish I was. When I have more time, although I’m not sure when that’ll be, I’d like to cook more, go back to my horticultural course and I’d love to learn how to draw. People often ask me for sketches and I’ve got it pretty clear in my head, but I find it hard to draw what I’m thinking. Not that I can use Photoshop either, but I’d probably be better at that, at collating more of a storyboard or a mood board. That’s sort of how I see the next Grandiflora book. We thought it’d be lovely to have a mood board for people to get inspiration for events. We did the Romance Was Born show for our book really because we’ve been keen to link up with other people to collaborate with.

Is that the theme of the book; collaborations?

No, the theme is ‘Grandiflora Stories’. It’s about following a brief from the beginning to the end. I’m not doing it with Gary [Heery, my partner] this time, I’m doing it with another photographer, Andrew Lehmann. We’re halfway through shooting that. We’ve got to do 40 stories and be finished shooting by June next year. Then I have to write a piece to go with each story; the story of the story.

How many weeks in a year? You’ll basically be doing one every two weeks!

It’s not that hard, surprisingly we have more than we need.

Of such great projects?

Well some of them are tiny. Of course the big things are great but, we very much want to have small things in there as well. It might just be a dinner for six, or an unusual launch, or a baby shower, or a barbecue on a balcony, but in an unusual sort of way. I get a lot of inspiration from the flower markets and from nature in general by going for bush walks and looking at the botanical gardens. Especially when I get to travel I love to go to markets and botanical gardens in other places in Australia and overseas. We’ve done quite a lot of work in Singapore and that’s such a different climate. There are so many things over there that are foreign to us. Thailand too. We went to Bangkok to do a job and the people who were looking after us very kindly took us to the night [flower] market. For me that was … Oh, I haven’t felt like that since I had my first child. They were literally holding onto me and marshalling me through because they thought they were going to lose me.

You could see all the monks walking through the marigolds, whole shops full of marigolds, and stand, after stand, after stand of the same colours and everything in between; children lying on stretcher beds watching television, dogs, and people making flowers. There were people actually creating leis and jasmine adornments for brides. All very intricate and perfect, things that I could never do even if I tried. I just don’t have that sort of technical skill, or patience, to master it. Here, when we get 10 lotus flowers and we think that’s magic and they’ve literally got thousands and thousands of them in buckets and buckets and buckets. I find it really inspiring to try to replicate that emotion, how you feel when you see that sort of thing.

I suppose the Sydney Flower Market pales by comparison?

I think we’ve got a pretty good market. I’d be very sad to do a week without doing the markets. At 3:45am when the alarm goes off, I find the first 10 minutes really hard, but then I’m so up and ready for it. I go once a week always, and sometimes I’ll go twice depending on the week, but as a shop we go three times; Monday, Wednesday and Friday. A lot of our flowers we’ll pre-order so they’ll be set aside and, as soon as we arrive they’ll put them straight in the van so you wouldn’t even see those on the stand … There’s sort of a whole other layer to the market going on. We have the odd private supplier we get flowers from and we get things direct, like all our peonies come from Tasmania and are flown straight to the door. To open five boxes of those for a big event, or even just for the shop … Nothing can make you feel like that, it’s so awe-inspiring. Also, to see the quality and know that they’re Australian, they’re locally-grown …

How much does come in from overseas, in general?

A bit, but not a huge amount, not like in Singapore where pretty much everything except for their few orchids is flown in from Holland. When we did our last job in Singapore things were coming from very strange places. Here, we would only bring in a few tropical things: Anthuriums and a few orchids. That’s the beauty of our market. To me it looks quite home-grown, it doesn’t look like everything’s come out of a box and is perfectly manicured.

And it’s seasonal, as you were saying.

There were two little bunches of Anemones today and I just thought, I’ve had to wait so long to see those, it’s like seeing an old friend. I said to the grower, “I’m so excited to see those today, it really made my day.” I’ve given one bunch away today already and I’m hanging onto the other one for another friend.

Another grower, last week, had one bunch of Daphne sitting up on his stand and he was so proud of it. Of course everyone wanted it, but he was like, “No, that is for my mother’s grave. Every year, I take my first bunch of Daphne and I put it on her grave.” I just thought, it doesn’t get much better than that does it … for the message? It’s really powerful. But yeah, having looked at other markets, our one is pretty organic and low as well, everything’s quite low to the ground, everything’s in buckets on the floor. A lot of markets overseas have everything on benches and boxed. All the blooms they grow per square metre and they’re all the same length, the same flower size, the same colour. We did some work with a florist in France – his name’s Jeff Leatham and he’s quite famous, the rock-star florist of the world. We became quite good friends when he came to Australia and did some work together. I supported him flower-wise and with our team while he was here. Then he was doing [actress] Eva Longoria’s wedding in France and he said, “If you want to come over and help …” So three of us went and that was incredible, such an amazing experience to see how he works and how he … I mean, halfway though the job I thought, am I mad? It was quite challenging, but looking back on it I learnt so much in so many different ways, even just to watch how he managed his team. We were supposed to go to Holland to look at the flowers at Aalsmeer [the Dutch flower market] after that, but we were so exhausted from the job. Regusse, the markets in Paris, were very beautiful, very French-looking with lots of woodland things and moss, and they colour-code everything in the market. The market’s very chic and they’re all walking around with their woven baskets and beautiful old wooden trolleys. It was huge, just the sundries was three times the size of our whole market, ribbons and vases … I was so overwhelmed by it all and Jeff said, “God if you think this is overwhelming, wait till you get to Holland.” Then half way through the job he said, “Actually it might really spoil flowers for you because when you get to Holland it is so manufactured.” I suppose you’d lose the poetry of going to a grower and really seeing the whole thing looking organic.

How long have you been doing it now?

I’ve had the shop here for 14 years and I was working with Alison Coates before that. I don’t know if you’re familiar with her work, she’d actually be a good person for you to interview – an amazing woman and really creative. I felt that when I was working with Alison that I helped manage her projects. We were a good combination because she had really full-on, bizarre concepts and it was nice to be the under-pinner for her.

Yet now, here, are you the wildly creative one with others running around helping make your ideas happen?

I think it’s more of a team in here, it is a big collaboration. I’ve got Sean, the manager of the shop, although he probably needs a better description and I wouldn’t call him my ‘under-pinner’. He and I work really well as a team. I’ll come up with a bit of an idea and then he’ll add to it. We’ve got such a strong language now that when we go onto a job we don’t need to talk to each other much. He knows he’s up the ladder and I’ll stand down and direct him. When I first started doing that I found it hard. I sort of felt like I was being a bit condescending.

Then everybody else joins in and will say, “Well what about if you do this, and what about if you do that?” Everyone sort of dovetails in and pulls together and that’s really … I couldn’t do it without that sort of teamwork.

How did you get the job with Alison?

Oh I was determined. At the time I was at a Tafe course for 13 weeks, a full-time course. My sister was already doing floristry at Tafe and she’s also a florist now in Tasmania. She does all the in-house flowers for Government House, but she’s very traditional in her flower-work, she does beautiful work. I loved all the hands-on stuff and doing all the wiring, even though we had to learn it in a really traditional way, I loved the technique. I got really good marks because I was quite good at fiddling around with it all. A lot of the other girls there were a bit half-pie about what they were doing. I also knew I had to find some other avenue to make it a bit more interesting. We had the opportunity to do two work experience placements. First I did work experience with a really traditional florist. He was great because he used to do like, 60 table centrepieces for $20 each, and we used to have a lot of fun. He taught me a lot about working really fast. Then I found out about Alison through some friends and I thought I’d approach her for my second work experience, did that, and then I was like, “Do you have any more work?” I had to be quite persistent and in the mean time I found another job with a lady called Lena Malouf who was very Las Vegas. She used to use lots of ostrich feathers and Dancing Lady orchids and it was all very cabaret. I admired how she got things together, even though it wasn’t my style. But with Alison I thought, oh if only I could get a job there because I just, I really thought she was the bee’s knees, there would have been no-one better than her anywhere in the world.

What was it about her work? Did you already have a sense of your own style that you could see was close to hers?

Well I had come from living in New York for four years.

What were you doing there?

I worked for ARTFORUM magazine, and I was married at the time to an Australian who’s still there, so I got very connected to the art world. My boss used to love to get lots of flowers for his parties and I would go to the flower markets with him. Even when I was a child my mother had a beautiful garden and she used to teach us flower names. My dad’s Dutch and he’s always on about tulips and Holland. My two great aunts are painters and they used to paint still lifes of flowers, so there’s always been a flower language in my family. When I was in New York I’d always look out for flower shops. I loved to go in and see what sort of atmosphere they had. I also travelled a lot when I was in New York because my husband at the time used to travel all over the world, and wherever I was I’d really take in as much as I could. I was just interested I suppose. I’d always like to get out and have a look at, not only flowers, but anything I’d read about that was interesting. So I sort of had a bit of a concept of a certain style and then when I met Alison I thought, she’s it. I hadn’t seen anything like her flower work before. I’d seen work by Christian Tortu that was similar to what Alison was doing at the time, but her work was much more Australian. It was really edgy and pushing the boundaries. A lot of people did not understand her work at all, but a niche really did get what she was doing. I thought she was really brave and I knew I really wanted to be part of her team and be submerged. I was there as often as she wanted me, as she wanted me. I didn’t have much else on my plate at the time …

Except a broken heart.

Yeah, I was pretty devastated from my relationship breaking up and I was on offer.

Ready to throw yourself into something else?

Yip, I was so ready to throw myself right into it and she needed someone to do that. I worked with Alison for five years and we had a pretty intense time. Her business had gone from being pretty tiny to pretty … She was doing some incredible work and she had two little children at the time and they lived above the shop. Tracey Deep, she does a lot of sculptural work as well, worked there too at the same time. Then more people came on board and that’s where I met Eva who I started Grandiflora with. We worked together for a while, and then I left, and then Eva left, and then we found this shop. It was more my idea, I was really ready for it.

Why did you leave?

Alison actually closed her business a year after that. She was getting a bit over it, I think with her kids … She needed to move on and I definitely needed to move on, I’d had my fill and was ready to make my own mark.

So when you found this space, Potts Point wouldn’t have been what it is now.

People were like, “Are you mad? There is nothing down there, there’s no trade, it’s as dead as a doornail.” I was like, “No, I am determined, I love that little shop.” I’d driven past a few times and seen a ‘For Lease’ sign in the window. It was a Lawrence Drycleaner and it was disgusting with dirty old red carpet and the ceiling was really low, but I could see that at the back the ceiling wasn’t actually low. I found out that the building owners really wanted a flower shop in here and that was fortunate because they’re quite discerning about who they have. We had to go through a lot of interviews …

How ridiculous, it was a drycleaner!

I know! We did all the renovation ourselves. We were down on our hands and knees painting and chipping. And then, the minute I put the key in the front door, I found out that I was pregnant so I had to tell Eva that, which didn’t go down very well. I managed to get through all of that, we both did, and that was challenging. When I really feel like I’m slipping, or I can’t cope, I think back to those days and I think, nup this is really easy in comparison.

So you started a business at the same time as having your first child …

Yeah, and doing the markets … I never let any of that slip, I just stayed in the saddle. I was like, no, I’m just going to get through it.

How did you make it work?

Just long hours, long hours and slow-and-steady-wins-the-race.

Did you have the baby in here with you?

No, I talked my mum into leaving her job and she became the full time carer for Ginger, my first child who’s nearly 13 now. She’s at school across the road and she’s taller than me. It’s all gone very quickly.

Is she your only child?

No, I’ve also got Sunday who’s six. That time was easier because the business had grown and there were more people in place. The partnership with Eva had separated and I didn’t have to feel as responsible for that. So that’s it, two girls with a big gap in between, and a step-daughter, Ruby, who’s Gary’s daughter from his first marriage. [Turns to Jo] How long have you been here Jo? Everyone stays here for quite a while.

JO: Since you had Sunday, she was a newborn.

So nearly seven years. Jo’s had two children while she’s been here so she’s gone and come back again. Not that everyone’s like that – there are some people who cannot stand it in here. We just had someone who only lasted five weeks. She was like, “It’s too cold, too wet and I feel like I’m working outdoors all day.” You really have to … It’s very intense in here, it’s full on, so you’ve got to have a pretty good sense of humour. [Gary walks in] Oh Gary, fancy seeing you here. Have you met Kate, she’s from Dumbo Feather, she might want to ask you a few questions. [Small talk ensues …]

Do you live nearby?

Edgecliff-ish, we’ve got this funny old Munster’s house. It’s a bit like living in the middle of a washing machine – there’s always a lot going on at our house – lots of kids and dogs and people. It’s down a pathway and we’ve grown lots of trees and creepers. The house is really irregular, it’s quite old and on lots of different levels. We’ve done a little bit to it here and there, but not a lot, we’ve really tried to keep the integrity of the house. Gary works from home so he’s there all the time, he’s got a studio there, but I’m hardly ever there.

Probably works quite well.

[Laughs] Yeah, it does. It’s the only way.

You’d be one of, if not the most, successful florists in Australia.

Oh, thank you.

How did you get there? Why do you think it’s worked?

I think it’s a combination of lots of different things. No matter what field you’re in, it’s a combination of having a little bit of business acumen, which I don’t have a lot of, but I’ve got enough, and I can pull in the right kind of people to help me. Also, it’s got a lot to do with timing and energy.

Do you think your timing was right?

I could see a place in the market here for flowers that people weren’t getting from Alison and that I knew I could supply. Alison’s work is a bit hard-edged and I suppose I got to a position in her business where people were asking me for specific things that I wanted to put through the door, but I knew it wasn’t quite her style. That was when I really realised I could make a break from there. That was timing. I think it’s also got a bit to do with fashion and a bit to do with trends, and being open to knowing what that is. Luck too … Like knowing that this little shop would be in the right place. So many people have said, “You should get a bigger shop.” I might get a second shop, but I’d never move from here because it’s so our identity. There’s something about the energy in here and the way the flowers sit in the shop that’s really appealing to a lot of people, not just to a certain audience. Anybody can come in here and really feel enveloped.

It’s not a scary, intimidating shop at all.

I hope people come in here and get a buzz, some kind of inspiration and lift, even if they just walk in and walk out. We’ve had all this trouble with our phones this week and were saying how hard it is to get people to be responsive. I think service has also got a lot to do with success in business; whether it’s getting back to people, or letting people know you understand, or can help, and making your team aware of that too. There’s an element of training too and you have to keep on top of that all the time, you can never ever let that drop. I think once you do, you have to be prepared to step aside or change your business or go in a different direction. You have to know you still feel really enthusiastic about it.

Has your enthusiasm ever waned?

No it hasn’t. I did have a little … When I had my children, I have to say, there were times when I thought, this is seriously insane, I’m giving so much energy to my business and not enough to my children. I know that’s a common thing for women nowadays. I feel I can give a bit more time to them now and I’m the right age and in the right space in my own head to click in with them. When you have kids there are stages that you enjoy and don’t enjoy. Some people love them when they’re tiny babies and some people love them when they’re teenagers. I just happen to be loving this time, now, and I’ve got more space to do that. It was hard when they were really little, I felt a lot of guilt, but I never lost my passion. I wouldn’t be here if I had.

Did you actually have a choice?

I didn’t feel I had much choice, I just had the drive. It’s been a pull, a really tough pull between family and work.

For me it is. If I didn’t have one, say if I didn’t have my family, my business would have taken a different path. So yeah, that tension is an important thing to me. It can be a bit destructive, so it’s about being mindful of not letting it get too destructive.

Not beating yourself up about it?

Yes, and utilising it to push you forward into a creative spell. It’s satisfying when that happens. Like after the Romance Was Born show when everyone was so excited … I don’t know if you saw it, but I did this huge headpiece for one of the models. I could see (the designers) Luke [Sales] and Anna [Plunkett] standing back going woah, that’s a big one. I don’t think they were really expecting it.

So you’ve self-taught yourself to be able to make something like that?

I have, I have … It’s taken me years of experience to get that sort of thing together structurally. I’ve done them for [fashion designer] Michelle Jank before. To do it for stills [photos] is one thing, that’s ok, but for her catwalk show, I really thought I was going to vomit. I was just so nervous about something falling apart. Gary and I have done a few fashion shoots together and luckily one had this fabulous hair guy, Nicolas Jurnjack. He’d worked with John Galliano and built ships on top of models’ heads. I asked him, “How do you do that and not have a triple coronary?” He taught me how to make the oasis structure on top of the head for something like that. You know, that’s just another opportunity. I’ve had wonderful, wonderful opportunities where people have believed in me enough to ask, “Can you do this?” and that’s how you learn isn’t it. You have to be open to those opportunities.

Like with Jeff, I’m sure a lot of people would have said, “Are you crazy? I’m not going to Paris with two work colleagues to wing it for two weeks,” but I did. I just turned up and booked a funny little apartment and we all jumped in there. You have to be open to all that. Everyone here will tell you that they’re often rolling their eyes going, “Where are we off to now. Why are we doing this?”

But that’s obviously what keeps it exciting for you, when you’re pushing yourself to the point where you’re almost physically sick because you’re so scared that it might not work.

Oh there’s a lot of that, a lot of that. Like when we did this thing for Dries van Noten in Singapore. They had these two really old buildings like airplane hangers that had been dilapidated for 10 years … We had to decorate one of the buildings where they were having a dinner. We were up on scaffolding in the heat for a week. We had about four or five of us and then they gave us a team of about 30 people. You think, isn’t that amazing, but you’ve got to direct them, and all 30 of them are standing there saying, “What do you want us to do?” That’s a learning process. This is what I was thinking of when I was saying it’s really hard to make things look natural. It was all plants and leaves and had to look like a jungle. I remember Dries van Noten coming in and I just wanted to run. I hid behind everybody and then my name got called. I remember walking forward and I finally got the nod of approval and was so relieved. I have heard stories from people who’ve worked closely with him that he’s literally just said, “Take it all down, I’m not happy.”

You mentioned before that you think some business acumen is also important.

I’m glad you didn’t bring that up when Gary was here because he would have had something to say about that, but I have to give myself some … I did say to him the other night, “It’s been 14 years and everyone’s paid and I’m not in arrears.” I don’t make a lot of money, but I make enough to do what I need to do and everybody’s paid; all my growers, everyone who works here. We’ve now also got another office and a storage space not far from here. It’s got a funny little swimming pool attached to it and when I took my girls there they took one look at this little pool said, “Mum you’ve really made it, you’ve made it now.” We also install a lot on site. I know a lot of florists don’t do that, they’ll do everything off site and transport it there. I think that makes a difference because the way we do it, everything’s bespoke to the environment then. It’s got a different energy, it’s got a real life to it, it’s like painting I think, that’s how I feel when I work.

Composition?

Yeah, and that’s the team thing too. There are people in here who are better at some things than others, like Lisa who works here, she’s particularly good at composition so it’s nice to do that sort of work with her, whereas Sean’s better at the really big pieces. They all bring things to it. There are little influences that have come into the shop from other people and I do think about that more, about the people who’ve worked here and what they’ve bought to the business, the layering.

Do you feel that there’s anywhere more for you to go?

Yeah I do, I think about that all the time because I think it’s important. My friend Louise Olsen who I grew up with, from Dinosaur Designs, I really admire. I take business advice from those sorts of friends who have done amazing things. People try to copy Dinosaur and I’ve asked her, “How do you handle that? Do you get legal with them or do you address them directly?” She says, “All you have to do is stay one step ahead all the time.” So that’s how I approach it, by trying to stay one step ahead. So, in the future, when the next book comes out, what I would like to see happen, is that I work more on events and, as I get older, be able to travel a little bit more and do specialised projects. I love the shop, I love making bunches every day and that sort of thing, but I think the wear and tear of doing it all the time … You can only do it for a certain span of your life until it really starts to get very difficult physically. You’re on your feet all the time, it’s constant every day. There’s lots of hurdles throughout the day. It’s like being on a roller-coaster all day long. I don’t take a break. I’ll work from when I get up to 7pm at night and I do not stop. This is unusual for me to sit down for an hour. Anybody who works hard with flowers will tell you that’s the nature of the business.

Yet the irony is that it looks so romantic from the outside.

[Laughs] That’s the joke in here. We say, “It’d be so lovely just to play with flowers all day.” Which it is, but it’s like working in a really big kitchen of a restaurant because there’s a lot of other things going on at the same time that you’ve got to keep rolling along. So I think in the future I’ll move more into more specialised … I’d like to have a reputation for being able to achieve those sorts of … spectaculars, I suppose, even if they’re only small things, something that’s really out of the box.