• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

The Interiors Addict

Heart Your Home

@interiorsaddict on Instagram   @interiorsaddict on Facebook   @interiorsaddict on Pinterest  
Subscribe
  • Job Board
  • About
  • Before & Afters
  • RENO ADDICT
  • Kitchens
  • Bathrooms
  • Kids Rooms
  • Bedrooms
  • Living Room
  • Shopping
  • Expert Tips
  • Recipes
  • Parenting
  • Travel
Interiors Addict
  • Job Board
  • About
    • Our Story

      Australia’s largest interior design, styling and renovation blog for the everyday Aussie. By former journalist and magazine editor Jen Bishop, the original interiors addict!
      READ MORE

      We’re big on Instagram!
      @interiorsaddict

      • About
      • Contact Interiors Addict
      • Work with Interiors Addict
      • Advertise / Find a job in Interiors
      • Press
    • Get Your Free Ebook

      This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
    • bookcover-jens-reno
  • By Room
    • Browse by Room

      Where you can search for all our posts about a specific room. Only interested in kitchens and bathrooms? We got you!

      • Kitchens
      • Bathrooms
      • Kids Rooms
      • Bedrooms
      • Living Room
      • Home Office
      • Dining
      • Laundry
      • Outdoor & Exteriors
      • Renting
    • bookcover-jens-reno
  • Before & Afters
    • Before & Afters

      Who doesn’t LOVE a good before & after? If you want to be inspired by the whole reno process, and not just the shiny photos at the end, this is the place for you!

      View Articles

      • Before & Afters
      • Jen’s reno
      • Real Renos
      • RENO ADDICT
    • DSC_0257Designing Wandarra: Breathing new life into a 1980s homestead
    • 20240206_185022-01Before & after: tiles steal the show in 90s kitchen revamp
  • Reno Addict
    • RENO ADDICT

      Looking for reno inspo? Find it all here, from other people’s projects to the latest trends, tools and products, whether you’re DIY-ing or employing trades.

      View articles

      • Reno Products
      • The Block
      • DIY
      • Reno Trends
      • Before & Afters
      • Real Renos
    • Rosso Levanto.2Stunning showroom designed to be a real life Pinterest board
    • Northmead cube bathroomsDi Lorenzo Tiles open new showroom as family business thrives
  • Shopping
    • Shopping

      Want to know where to buy the latest furniture, homewares, rugs, art and more? We’re always sharing our latest finds and telling you where you can buy them.

      View Articles

      • Furniture
      • Homewares
      • Art
      • Smart Home
      • Appliances
      • Reno Products
    • Rosso Levanto.2Stunning showroom designed to be a real life Pinterest board
    • kuddlava-table-lamp-pleated-white__1416409_pe975547_s5.jpgWhat’s new in furniture and homewares: June 2025
  • Inspiration
    • Inspiration

      While Jen’s a legitimate interiors addict, she’s no design professional, so she calls on an army of the country’s best to share their expertise with you. Be inspired by their stories too!

      View Articles

      • Decorating 101
      • Interviews
      • Expert Tips
      • Before & Afters
      • House Tours
      • Designers
      • Styling
      • Renovating
      • Real Renos
      • Covet my coffee table
    • Kaye_1368_LRBreathing new life into Sorrento’s limestone heritage
  • Lifestyle
    • Lifestyle

      We’re mostly about the home but Jen also likes to share other things she thinks you’ll love, like food and travel.

      • Recipes
      • Travel
      • Parenting
    • Salted Choc PB PretzelFoodie Friday: Salted chocolate peanut butter pretzel cocktail
    • Muse marrakech Retreats Co Riad Botanica courtyardAussie in Morocco launches design retreat in Marrakech
  • Jobs
    • Advertise on our job board
    • Job Board FAQs for advertisers

What going to the flower market’s really like…

By Jen Bishop •

FacebookPinWhatsAppEmailTweet

This is an edited extract from A Tree in the House by Annabelle Hickson published by Hardie Grant Books AU $50.00/NZ $55.00 and is available where all good books are sold. Photographer: © Annabelle Hickson.

I recently went to the Sydney flower market with a florist friend. I’d happily never go there again. She had casually warned, ‘Oh, there’s a chance I might have a panic attack’ but I thought that, because this is somewhere she goes regularly for work, she was just being funny.

I met her in the rooftop carpark at 4.30 am on a Friday morning. Already, all the car spots were taken. I started lapping the carpark, along with several other harried-looking women, until a text came from my friend advising me to ‘pull over and create your own parking spot’. So I did, though not without some angst.

As I locked my car in its non-carpark, a desperate lady in a tiny car, who had also been lapping, pulled up alongside me and stuck her head out of her open window. ‘Where can I park? Why do they charge us $10 to get into the carpark if there are no spaces? At 4.30 in the morning?’ I told her – calmly, as if I was a regular, ‘You must make your own, anywhere you think you can get away with’.

Without a word, she put her window up and drove off. This was the atmosphere in the pre-dawn darkness of that Friday morning.

I met my friend at the lift. She had parked her hired van in another dodgy spot (this is a great tip for flower market amateurs like me: hire a van for the day if you plan on getting any significant quantity of flowers. Also bring big, rectangular plastic tubs filled less than a quarter full with water. Round buckets will tip over as soon as you hit the first speed bump on the way out). Thankfully, I had a fourwheel drive, unlike that poor woman in her small vehicle.

We made our way down to the flower market below and lined up at the shut roller doors. Not even at the main ones, but at a less obvious one set at the side that still had at least twelve people milling around, not talking, but occasionally peering through the slits in the door to spy whatever it was they were going to make a sprint for when the doors opened.

At 5 am the roller doors began to come up, and I am not lying when I say that people crouched
under the gap as the doors opened and ran for their dogwood blossoms, or whatever it was they were
worried they were going to miss. It was like being in a dystopian movie where petrified florists have
to find the perfect cherry blossom branch, of which there is a limited amount, or face death.

I am pleased to report my friend didn’t crouch and run, but she sure did power-walk through those aisles of flower stalls. Everyone looked stressed to me: the growers and the buyers. The market forces of supply and demand, as told through flowers – spectacular flowers. The produce was astounding, but all morning I was plagued by the feeling that I was missing out on very important things. Exactly what, I was not sure.

Plus, I was wearing long flares that brushed the ground and soaked up water like a sponge. The floor of the flower market is wet. Don’t wear flares, even if you do think they look flattering when you catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror at 3 am before leaving the house. From what I could see, the market morning was broken up into three distinct sessions: the first session is all business, where you run around saying, ‘I’ll take that, that and that’. You power-walk down the aisles, check out the different stalls and put your name on the stuff you want, saying to the grower that you’ll be back.

Once you’ve secured your picks, you shift into the second session, which is all about returning to the growers, paying them in cash and being nice to them to strengthen your relationship for future first sessions.

Session three is the take-it-to-the-car session. This involves either lots of little trips holding as many bunches as you can from the marketplace to the lift, up the lift and to your car, which may or may not have been towed away, with your wet flares slapping your ankles. Or one or two more intense trips with a borrowed trolley, dodging Bobcats with flashing lights. There are lots of tiered trolleys around. I am not actually sure who owns them or how you get one, but I know it has something to do with being nice to the growers or spending incredible amounts of money.

The morning was far too intense for me. I was hungry, cold and a long way from home. My friend didn’t have a panic attack, but I’ll tell you what, I was close. I would happily leave this experience to the professionals and arrive at the markets at 8.30 am, when the parking is easy, to pick over whatever flowers are left. Or just take my chances with whatever is growing next to the railway track.

There is also something inherently stressful about having so much choice. The markets have everything, and it all looks spectacular. It’s very hard to come away with a curated selection of flowers and foliage when the pool from which to choose is so vast and so good. This editing process is a skill in and of itself, and I would very much rather nature do it for me.

So if you do find yourself doing the flowers for an event, by all means go to the markets to get your material. But be warned: no small cars, no silly little buckets and no flares. Bring lots of cash, friends with helping hands and a steely focus. All this while the rest of the city sleeps.

FacebookPinWhatsAppEmailTweet

March 14, 2019

Primary Sidebar

Popular This Week

  • Australian bathroom standards: dimensions explained by an expert

  • A luxurious slice of Italy on the NSW South Coast

  • Latest Kmart Home range, coming later this month

  • I tried the latest robot window cleaner and I’m obsessed!

  • Foodie Friday: Easy roast chicken with an Australian touch

Follow us on Instagram

@decordesignshow day 2 @decordesignshow day 2
Lots to see and great networking at @decordesignsh Lots to see and great networking at @decordesignshow today
Nestled among the rolling vineyards of the Shoalha Nestled among the rolling vineyards of the Shoalhaven area on the NSW South Coast, former Block contestants @rachelandryan Carr have transformed a tired rural property into a luxurious holiday retreat that feels like a slice of Italy. Surrounded by the natural beauty of gum trees and rural views, the property is designed to transport guests to the heart of Tuscany, blending the charm of the Australian landscape with the elegance and luxury of Italian design. 

See more on the blog now, via link in bio and stories.
Australia's first 3D printed house is complete! An Australia's first 3D printed house is complete! And this pair of duplexes look pretty stylish too! Ground floor is printed concrete and the top floor is made from lightweight modular panels.

Want to read all about it and see more pix? Comment '3d" and we'll send the article link straight to your DMs! Or find it on the homepage via link in bio.

#3dprinting #3dprinted #3dprintedhouse #3dprintedhome #3dprintedhomes #houseofthefuture #australianhomes #australianhousing
New @kmartaus home coming later this month and her New @kmartaus home coming later this month and here's a few of the standouts, with pricing and more info on the blog now, via link in bio.

Anything catch your eye?

#kmartaustralia #kmarthome #kmartaus #kmartstyling #affordablehomedecor
A custom look on a budget: we love how this rangeh A custom look on a budget: we love how this rangehood cover was fashioned from a piece of American oak benchtop!

This fresh coastal kitchen showcases some of @kaboodlekitchen's latest products to achieve a truly individual space, without paying a small fortune. V groove doors, premium wireware inserts and a concrete look benchtop make for a great combination that's at the same time on trend and timeless. 

See more on the blog now via link in bio and stories.

#flatpackkitchen #budgetkitchen #uniquekitchen #bluekitchencabinets #vgroove #kaboodle #kaboodlekitchen
Swipe for before An interior designer shares the Swipe for before 

An interior designer shares the clever ways they took this homestead from tired 80s to a welcoming country retreat for holidaymakers without spending a fortune or starting from scratch.

This fireplace became a beautiful focal point after a lick of paint, for example.

See more before and afters from @wandarra_homestead on the blog now via link in stories/bio.
How heavenly is AFL star @rhysstanley_'s home he s How heavenly is AFL star @rhysstanley_'s home he shares with wife @kirstenstanley_ and their young kids?!

When they first set eyes on an expansive acreage on Victoria's Surf Coast, they knew it was the perfect place to build their forever home and embrace working farm life. @studiohallihan helped them bring it all together perfectly!

Take the tour on the blog now, via link in bio and stories.

#modernfarmhousehomes #australianfarmhouse #workingfarm #surfcoastlife #foreverhomes #farmhousestylehome #geelongfootballclub #geelongcats
Brand new furniture in an 1877 house and IT WORKS! Brand new furniture in an 1877 house and IT WORKS!

@castleryau have named the talented stylist @stevecordony as their first Australian brand ambassador and he's curated a capsule of their furniture which he styled to perfection at his stunning country house @rosedale_farm 

I was lucky enough to see the pieces in situ last week and I honestly couldn't believe how well it all worked! They were going for accessible luxury and well, he delivered, and then some!

Head to the blog via link in bio to read more about the partnership.

#castlery #castleryau #stevecordony #rosedalefarm #affordablefurniture #australianstylist
Follow on Instagram
Visit Jen's profile on Pinterest.

Get Your Free Ebook

Ebook cover

Never miss the latest renovating and interiors products, news and inspo again! Sign up for our newsletter and we'll send you the best bits from the blog, direct to your inbox. Plus you'll get our latest eBook: Just One Thing To Elevate Your Interior, featuring Australia's top design talent.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Jen Bishop

About Jen Bishop

Jen Bishop is our owner and publisher and an experienced journalist and editor. She founded Interiors Addict in 2011. Jen also works as a copywriter and comms consultant to small business owners and brands, helping them with their own content as well as working out what will make them appealing to the media.

More Recent Posts

Lawns that cool and blinds that listen: the new smart backyard

The Interior Styling School unveils bold rebrand and new course

Breathing new life into Sorrento’s limestone heritage

Stylist tips to cosy up your home for winter + where to…

Stunning showroom designed to be a real life Pinterest board

Beautiful curation of art brings luxury Brisbane home to life

Foodie Friday: Salted chocolate peanut butter pretzel cocktail

Di Lorenzo Tiles open new showroom as family business thrives

A luxurious slice of Italy on the NSW South Coast

Promo Area

Footer

Interiors Addict

Interiors Addict

  • About
  • Contact
  • Work with Jen
  • Press
  • Jobs
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclosure Policy

Browse

  • RENO ADDICT
  • Jen’s Reno
  • House Tours
  • Real Renos
  • Interviews
  • Styling
  • Designers
  • Bedrooms
  • Covet My Coffee Table
  • Expert Tips
  • The Block
  • Art
  • Furniture
  • Recipes

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RENO ADDICT

Copyright © 2011–2025 Addicted Media Pty Ltd
Website care by ClickWP · Log in