Floraging: New magazine inspires love of wild floristry

Making a bouquet from flowers and plants found at the side of the road is (right) Bettina Anderson and and Jill Titter.

Sonya Holm/Stuff

Making a bouquet from flowers and plants found at the side of the road is (right) Bettina Anderson and and Jill Titter.

A new ‘floraging do-zine’ is encouraging flower lovers to use weeds and wild things as much as farmed flowers.

A collaboration between Haunui Press and Jillybud Florists has seen the release a new online magazine entitled ‘Floraging’ – a term coined by the group.

A play on foraging, searching for free food grown naturally in the wild, it extends the idea to flowers and floral displays.

Jillybud Florist owner Jill Titter said nothing was unusable.

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“People will say, ‘Oh that’s just a weed’, but you know if it’s flowers it’s a flower.”

Plants growing at the side of the road and flowers popping out of cracks in the concrete were all fair game.

“It’s about realising that what is in your backyard and what’s on the side of the road is actually great.”

A combination of commercial flowers and weeds can make a luscious bouquet.

Sonya Holm/Stuff

A combination of commercial flowers and weeds can make a luscious bouquet.

The do-zine had 102 pages of photographs, taken by Haunui Press co-founder and photographer David Lupton.

Titter said it also included tips and advice, and 13 projects designed to bring flowers into people’s lives in the cheapest way possible.

Self-taught, Titter had been a florist for about 20 years.

She came first-equal in the Flowers and Design category at the International Wedding Awards in 2020, success she attributed to her combination of commercial and wild flowers.

A bouquet of

Sonya Holm/Stuff

A bouquet of “weeds” and wildflowers made by Jill Titter using plants found on the side of the road.

Haunui press is a local “garage press” run by Lupton and Bettina Anderson focusing on “content conceived in the Manawatū”.

“We explore ways to share your stories beyond the page,” said Anderson.

She said going online-only was a first for them, and offered the potential of an international audience.

The do-zine was designed to be the first of a series with a second one planned for autumn or winter.

“Floraged celebrates wild things freely found… when you’re going for a walk down the river with the dog and you suddenly go, ‘oh Iook, there’s some pretty stuff there’.”

The “do-zine” is $20 (Australian), and available from floraged.com. From 22 December there is buy one gift one offer with every copy purchased receiving a digital access code to gift a second copy free.