Our purpose
We unite and reconnect communities to nature, bringing it back to the forefront of spaces, places and events. The more people connect with nature, the more we feel the urgency to slow down and take care of it.
Our intention
Create with purpose: We bring design solutions to our clients that directly, or indirectly reflect on the bigger climate crisis we are facing globally.
Serve our community: We walk hand in hand with our clients to build gatherings that serve people and communities in a way only possible with their unique purpose and place.
Minimise waste + buy local: every Lokale Blumen design has a focus on thoughtful use of existing resources. If you seek a quote from us, you’ll know where your flowers came from, the exact farm, and the flower farmer.
Teach: We educate our clients throughout the design process on what is seasonal and native to place, opening a critical pathway to ignite all of the senses in our creative solutions
Give back: We donate to causes that give back to this precious planet of ours. Some of our causes listed below.
About us
Lokale Blumen (meaning: local flowers) is a creative design studio based in Sydney. Lokale Blumen was born during founder Ali’s first foray into commercial floristry. Unwrapping every flower from it's plastic wrapper in her first floristry course, it was evident they had just arrived from their long-haul flight to Sydney. This experience sent Ali on a mission to hunt out the local flower farming community. And it didn't take long to find it.
Soon enough, Ali was on a short stint working on flower farms in Tasmania, Australia; learning how to grow peonies, poppies, and selling directly to the local market. No exporting, no nasties.
Lokale Blumen sees that environmentally friendly, ethical solutions across the floral industry are necessary, and absolutely possible.
Founder & Director, Ali Shillington
Ali is a floral artist, designer, a fellow from the Centre of Sustainability Leadership (CSL) now with the Monash Sustainable Development Institute (MSDI), and is completely obsessed with nature and getting outdoors.
After 15 of years running corporate conferences and events, inevitably, Ali’s design background ended up bringing her full circle into creating again.
Ali started Lokale Blumen with a the intention of getting closer to nature. This began with moving to Tasmania to work on flower farms, selling at the market, weeding. You name it. In between time in Tassie, Ali spent days off getting up close and personal with the incredible National Parks, and learning a heck of a lot about wildflowers and slower living.
Ali also writes for the Slow Journal in a regular column covering Australia’s native plant bounty and other musings. Visit Ali’s articles here
Giving back
Some of the causes our studio supports are listed below, in addition to the local communities in which we operate our events and Wild Weekends. We thank the organisations below for all they do in protecting our planet, globally and locally.
Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney
Scientists and horticulturalists at your Botanic Gardens are working on real solutions to help ensure our plant life can withstand a changing climate. Aiming to prevent extinctions of not only our plants, but the animals which rely on them. All of us. Visit rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/Support
Millennium Seed Bank (MSB) Project
With around one in five plant species estimated to be threatened with extinction worldwide, seed banks are an effective means of preserving the world’s plants for the future. The MSB is a growing collection of seeds from around the world, aiming to provide a safety net for species at risk of extinction. Collecting seeds and preserving them ex situ (away from their natural habitat) offers an economical and effective way to save seeds and keep them for posterity. The rate of environmental change is happening so fast that it is not always possible to conserve plants within threatened habitats. In the future, if required, they can be germinated and reintroduced to the wild or used in scientific research. Visit www.kew.org/join-and-supportIn Defence of Plants (Patreon)
We love everything Matt does. We support him over at Patreon here. Words from Matt:
”It would seem that most people don’t pay any attention to plants unless they are pretty or useful in some way. I reject this reality outright. Plants are everything on this planet. They have this amazing ability to use our nearest star to break apart water and CO2 gas in order to grow and reproduce. From the smallest duckweed to the tallest redwood, the botanical world is full of amazing evolutionary stories. I am here to tell those stories. My name is Matt and I am obsessed with the botanical world. In Defense of Plants is my way of sharing that love with you.”
“Adopt the pace of nature. Her secret is patience. ”