Our Queen Street space on a Friday — buckets everywhere, coffee on the go.
About the workshop
The people behind
your flower bench
Flower Craft Workshop is a small Auckland studio run by working florists who'd rather teach you the trick than gatekeep it.
We started in 2017 with one trestle table, a secondhand sink and a theory: people don't want to admire floristry, they want to do it. Nine years later the theory holds — we've taught more than a thousand students, and some of them now run their own flower businesses, which we count as the best possible outcome.
Everything we know came from event work first — weddings, hotel installs, the occasional 4am market run for a fashion show. Classes are just us passing that on, minus the 4am part.
Come meet usYou'll meet
- Amelia — founder, lead tutor, still does every Saturday
- Rosa — dried-flower brain, ex-props stylist
- Theo — weddings & installations, market-run veteran
- Mere — studio manager, knows your name by week two
Everyone on the bench here also works real events. No career tutors.
2017
AKL
How we got here
From one trestle table
to a full teaching studio
First class, six students
Amelia ran a bouquet night in a borrowed Ponsonby kitchen. Six people came. Three of them still get our newsletter.
Moved to Queen Street
Demand outgrew the kitchen. We took a sunny upstairs space in the CBD — close to the market suppliers and the bus routes.
Corporate & private events launch
Team days and hens' parties went from "occasionally" to "every second weekend", so we built a proper programme for them.
1,163 students and counting
This year we added the wedding intensive and a tool library students can borrow from. Still small on purpose.
The philosophy bit
Skills over secrets, always
Plenty of florists guard their techniques like family recipes. We took the opposite bet: if we teach a thousand people to make beautiful things, Auckland just ends up with more beautiful things. Works so far.
The workbench mid-class — organised chaos is the correct state.
Hands first, theory second
You spend 70% of class time with stems in your hands. We explain as you work — it sticks better than slides ever did.
Seasonal or nothing
We buy what the market has this week — mostly NZ-grown. If peonies aren't in season, you learn to love what is.
Small groups on purpose
Twelve is our ceiling, eight for advanced classes. Past that, a tutor can't reach your bench in time to save a wilting spiral.
Low-waste bench
Offcuts go to our dried-flower wall or the compost, ribbon gets reused, and we teach the same habits for your kitchen table.
Our team
Four people, zero gatekeeping
A deliberately tiny crew — everyone teaches, everyone still does events.
Amelia Hart
"The spiral is just a handshake you do with stems. Anyone's hand can learn it."
Rosa Delaney
Dried & preserved design · also runs the props cupboard of wonders
Theo Ngata
Weddings & installations · the one who climbs the ladder
Mere Kaipara
Studio manager · bookings, vouchers, the good biscuits
Plus a rotating cast of working florist friends who guest-teach specialist weekends.
Selected work
What we make when we're not teaching
The studio still takes event commissions — it keeps our teaching honest.
Floral ceiling for the Harbour Lights gala
Nine hundred stems of delphinium and wild carrot hung over a dinner for three hundred. Took two days, a scissor lift, and every tall person we know. Theo still talks about it.
- Commissioned by a Britomart events agency
- All flowers composted or dried after the night
- Techniques from this job feed our installation class
"Best-looking room we've produced all year." — the event producer, who then booked us for two more
pick
'25
Seasonal banquet styling — 40 covers, private client
Student wall — dried pieces from our winter classes
DIY-bride support — she made them, we just coached
Market run — 5:45 am dahlias for a lobby install
Then and next
Same bench, better tools
Where it started
- One borrowed kitchen table
- Flowers bought retail, counted twice
- Bookings by text message
yrs
Where we're heading
- A tool-lending library for past students
- Guest-tutor weekends with working florists from Wellington and Christchurch
- A proper cutting garden share with a Waimauku grower — less imported stock every season
Growth target: more classes, same twelve-bench ceiling. Small is the feature.
“I came for one class before my daughter's wedding. That was eleven classes ago. My lounge looks like a florist's shop and I have no regrets.
Helen R. — Devonport
Season Pass holder since 2024
About-us FAQ
Like our vibe?
The fastest way to know if we're your people is to spend three hours at the bench. Saturday's a good start.
- Classes from NZ$95, everything included
- Gift vouchers if you're shopping for someone
- Groups of 8+ can take the whole studio