Capturing floral creations from a cut flower garden

Makers

Oct 31

Written By Cassie

On a farm in Western Australia, Helen Leighton grows flowers and turns them into stunning arrangements – capturing their beauty in her camera lens as a way to share her garden with others.

From dahlias and roses to grevillea and banksia, seasonal and wildflowers bloom throughout Helen Leighton’s property and cut flower garden – and are scattered across her studio table, too. She wasn’t always a gardener and a photographer, though, having started her career as a midwife.

“I did nursing, and then I did midwifery. I worked in that for a few years and got married and had my first child in 1990,” shares Helen. “My husband had a shift work career, and I had a shift work career. That didn't really work with us both being at work, so I became a stay-at-home mum.”

Having always been a person that likes to keep busy, Helen decided to dip her toes into gardening: “I thought, well, it's an affordable way to improve your surroundings when you don't have much money.”

Helen went on to study garden design at the Inchbald School of Design in London and floral design with Zita Elze and many other leading floral designers in Europe, and started to develop an interest in floristry after her daughter did some work experience in the field before starting university.

“I started thinking, well, there's more to floral design than just a gerbera in a box with some plastic wrapped around it. It’s become a passion – I actually feel like I've finally found the way to share my garden with a wider audience. And that was always the thing that I wanted to do: share my garden,” says Helen.

With the release of her first book, Garden Gathered, Helen is now able to share her garden and floral creations with an even wider audience.

“I actually feel like I've finally found the way to share my garden with a wider audience. And that was always the thing that I wanted to do: share my garden.”

How did the idea for the book come about?

I had a very busy 2019, going into 2020, and a couple of people suggested I might benefit from some mindfulness or meditation classes. I thought I’d do that once weddings were finished in March, slow down and go to a class. But then Covid came and that all went out the window.

I knew I had to follow up on the idea. I thought maybe if I just started journaling and writing about the garden, trying to notice the detail a little bit more in the garden – the noises, and making it a bit more sensory. So I did that and then I thought, at the same time, it might be quite nice to have some photos to go with what I was writing about and improve my photography, so I did some Zoom classes with a photographer.

Did you have any previous experience in photography?

I had been dabbling in it since I started floral design because you really need to be able to take good photos to show your work in its best. I was becoming reasonable and when I'm posting on Instagram I don't use my phone – I only use photos that I've taken on a digital SLR using manual settings. But the classes were an opportunity to perhaps improve my photography – perhaps more from a storytelling perspective so that it wasn't just always about the flowers, but maybe the landscapes at the farm and some more detailed shots.

It took until 2021 and up until early this year to document things in the garden that matched with the text I'd written. Initially, I just thought it could be a little book for the family. But now it's got legs and I've enjoyed the whole collaboration with other creatives. It's been a really lovely, heartwarming journey.

Garden Gathered captures a year on a flower farm with floral and garden designer Helen Leighton of Riverdale Farm, on the south coast of Western Australia. Videography by Holii Carmody.

“As a garden designer and a gardener, it's quite a solitary occupation – most of the time, you’re just in the company of a bucket of blooms. So it was nice to have contact and to feel like you're working with the team and in a team.”

What’s been your favourite part of this project?

Well, as a garden designer and a gardener, it's quite a solitary occupation – most of the time, you’re just in the company of a bucket of blooms. So it was nice to have contact and to feel like you're working with the team and in a team. I really feel like this project is about the team as much as anything. It's been a very collaborative process for all of us, and one that we've all been heavily invested in and heavily involved in.

What influences the design of each flower arrangement?

If I'm working creatively, I might go out and find what I think is looking really gorgeous that day in the garden and what else can I find that is going to go well with that, and that might be props or fruit in the garden. It's generally working with a colour and then finding that mix of blooms that will complement that colour.

That creative play is really quite important, and everything in the book – from the arrangements that I've done to what I’ve named them – was all creative play.

The lovely thing about homegrown flowers is that they really appeal to all senses. They're beautiful; they are very natural; they have a lot of imperfection at times, but you need to embrace that and run with it.

When it comes to capturing these pieces on the camera, how do you know you've got the right shot?

Generally, I take an awful lot of photos. But I've learned what apertures work best for taking the photos and having that little bit of sidelight is good. I've set up an area in my studio where I generally photograph finished pieces that has just a little bit of light coming in from the side – there's no other light source in the room.

Afterwards in Lightroom, I do very minimal editing. It's about trying to get it right in camera.

As well as being a way for you to share your garden and work with others, what do you hope Garden Gathered will achieve?

Part of my reason for wanting to share it is I feel that in this digital world we live in now, it's very easy to look at things and think people just have it all, or that it's easy to achieve something. I guess the reason for including some of the more personal details in the book is really about sharing the journey. The journey was that we didn't really have a lot of money, even when we came to the farm here. We've had to do it ourselves – we haven't employed people to come in and design the garden or make the structures. I’m fortunate enough to have a husband who has a fairly good skill set, having come from a farm background. So he has been able to bring life to a lot of my creative ideas. There's that form and function – they're practical, but they're also quite lovely.

Gardening is so entwined with nature and humanity. Nothing beats that, really. I mean, obviously being in nature is beautiful as well and enjoying the land and the beautiful landscapes, but it's also lovely to create somewhere around your home, even if it's very small scale, where you can just sit outside and be with family and friends.