Jardine Hansen
Photos: Trish Chong
Editorial: Jessie James
Jardine Hansen spends her time between the Huon Valley, Tasmania and her family home, a historic house in Hunters Hill, Sydney. The later is romantic, rich and layered, the kind of magical childhood house you could play hide and seek in – everywhere intricacies, memories and features of character.
Jardine is preparing for the following day’s work and the front rooms are taken over with buckets of flowers, creating the most heavenly of scenes amongst the ornately detailed interior – marble fireplaces, a velvet settee, dark wooden tables with turned legs and Jardine’s dad’s romanic nautical and still life paintings gracing the walls.
In the garden, Jardine’s mum is growing roses along the fence and blooming wisteria drapes over in an abundance of heady scent. Dad (Ian Hansen) is at work in his garden studio, the former horses stable, and Cedar the dog bustles in and out around legs, looking for pats and happily drinking the flower water.
Where are you from?
I grew up in Hunters Hill in Sydney.
Where have you lived previously?
Sydney, Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains and Longley about 20 minutes south of Hobart
Could you tell us a little about your background?
I feel as though I fell into it by chance. I was 3/4 of the way through a double degree in Sports Science and Nutrition (which I loathed, it was so dry!) and doing terribly at it when I decided to drop out. I rambled around for a few years and happened to meet someone who was studying floristry at Tafe which I thought sounded like fun. I looked up the course which back then was $500 for one day a week, a one year course. I also loathed that course as it was very restrictive creatively but it got me going to the flower markets which is full of the most incredible growers and their flowers. We really are so lucky to get to interact with our growers directly, so many florist friends from around the world just deal with importers or on sellers which is still great but there’s something very special about chatting to the person who grows the flowers and seeing their passion.
I never really thought I’d make a career out of flowers, I always loved gardening and nature and felt that arranging flowers for myself would be interesting but never thought to take it further. At the perfect time I had the great good luck of meeting Nicolette Camille and Sarah Ryhanan, two florists from NYC who gave me a little push and a bit of encouragement to start my own business and 7 years later it’s been non stop flowers, which I’m very grateful for.
What are you currently working on?
I’m always practicing and experimenting, arranging with flowers and in the garden trying to grow weird and wonderful things. I just sowed ~ 600 seeds in my greenhouse so hopefully I’ll have quite a lot of seedlings to grow on. On the non flowery front I’m about to enter a 50km trail race and have been training for that and have been doing a bit of outdoor rock climbing lately which is a great challenge on body and mind.
What are you most proud of?
The achievements of the people I love, friends and family. For myself I suppose being self employed doing something I love madly makes me feel proud.
What do you see as your limitations?
Time. I love that flowers are so fleeting but it also makes working with them in tight time constraints tricky. I do kind of love the limit of time too though, it keeps me on the move all the time.
What is most important to you right now?
Big question! Friends and family.
What or who are some of your influences?
I find Japanese flower arranging Ikebana very influential and Japanese culture too. I have a lot of admiration for Georgina Reid of The Planthunter, as well as Nicolette of Nicolette Camille, Sarah from Saipua, my pals Erika and Hayden from Epicurean Harvest, Sophia Kaplan, Myra Perez from My Violet, Gina Lasker of Georgie Boy, Katie Marx, Eliza Rogers of Primula Floral Styling, Cara from Trille, Coralie from Wild Blossom Flowers, Mikarla from Wilderness Flowers – so many amazing people.
If you could meet one person you admire?
I’d have loved to have met Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
What are some of your favourite flowers?
Hellebore, all types of blossom – (crab apple, cherry, plum, almond), clematis, dogwood, garden roses, flannel flowers, strelitia nicolai.
How do you go about creating an arrangement?
I prefer to work with the seasons and generally start thinking about my palette and then pulling together different elements that will look striking together and feel balanced. At this time of year I adore working with sweeping blossom branches, they are so effective for creating good form and I love the contrast of tough woody stems with airy little blossoms, then adding in softer textures and scents like sweet pea, neroli, cumquat on the branch and beautiful ruffled ranunculus and freckled hellebore to create interest and depth. I think of flower arranging like painting or sculpture, you have to consider form, balance, depth, movement, colour. But the best arrangements come together quickly and effortlessly and don’t feel too contrived.
Do you have a special memory associated with flowers?
My nan was a really great gardener and all ’round great woman, she instilled an enduring love of plants in me with her quiet joyful appreciation of nature. She used to teach me the botanical names of things in the garden, marvel at seeds and plant life cycles. She took such great care of her garden and her family.
Where do you like to spend time locally?
Wherever I am I like to look at plants so I’m often in my garden or a friend’s or at a nursery or plant show. I also love bush walking or just walking around any leafy suburb, I love seeing beautiful and strange plantings that only really make sense to the person who planted them. I really love my dog Dash and like taking her swimming to the beach and to waterholes around our place in Tassie. We’ve also been doing a bit of kayaking in Tassie, paddling around the seacliffs and looking at rock formations, if it’s calm we paddle out to some small islands to explore.
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