In the leafy suburb of Ivanhoe, north-east of Melbourne,
is the garden of part-time florist
and full-time gardener Petrina Burrill.
Her cottage garden is a celebration of colour
and a home to thousands of bulbs, hundreds of roses,
peonies and self-seeding annuals.
How big is the garden?
So, the actual block is 690,
but I only work on probably the back third of it, so it's not too large.
And I've actually started digging into the lawns.
I needed more garden beds, so when hubby wasn't home,
I took up the lawn.
Anyway, I put lots of spring tulips through there.
How many bulbs would you plant in a year?
Oh, it's getting worse and worse.
This year, I put in 8,500. Oh, get on!
(LAUGHS) Yes! What? What sort?
Oh, so there were Ranunculi, the beautiful Italian renaissance...
Those big double frilly ones.
And all different varieties of tulips that will flower.
Mids and lates, earlies.
And then daffodils and anemones, and it's just a riot.
It's just a joy. A joy of colour.
How would you best describe your garden?
Well, I would say it's an English garden.
I love flowers and I just plant what I love.
So I look for fragrance, I look for joy, I look for colour.
I look for all the old fashioned flowers,
like the real, real flowers.
This is a very nice, flowery spot, right in the full sun.
Isn't she beautiful?
So we've got lots of foxgloves, delphiniums.
And then, of course, the roses through the middle.
And the Alliums. Look at those! Marvellous bulb.
And your pots are really good.
Filled, often just with self-sown things, like the lobelia.
Yes, the lobelia. The violas.
I think where they land and fall, that's where they grow,
which I just love.
Cornflowers. Yes.
And they're all just self-sown and I just let them fall on the path
or grow through the trees.
I always like the look of a loose garden.
Do you know what I mean?
Where sort of the aquilegias just sort of flow out.
And you've done that. Yes, definitely.
And I think, again, that comes back to working with nature.
So these are self-sown.
She put herself here and then free flowing,
and she's just happy, shining for everyone to see.
People may not know them. They're columbines, aren't they?
Or...? Granny's bonnet.
Yes! Which is just adorable.
You can just imagine the little hats there.
They're beautiful, aren't they? And the different colours.
I think they're lovely. This one here is just spectacular.
Yeah. The two tone variety.
And again, she just put herself there.
Just beautiful, and comes up every year,
then I cut her down to the bottom
and then the right time, up she comes.
Do you think flowers bring something out in people?
Definitely. Definitely. I think they just bring joy.
And that connection that you can have with flowers.
My beautiful mother, she taught us to love the little things in life.
Every night, we'd sit down and she'd pick flowers
to go in the table, centre of the table,
and we'd talk about the flowers.
That's a really lovely thing to do,
'cause then kids do become more aware of what's around them.
Yeah, so true. So true.
And it doesn't matter how small or how large.
I noticed a cute little thing over here.
Yes!
Yeah, that's a little viola, and she just found her way there.
If things find their way, little spots, I leave them.
I think, "Good on you! You found your way there."
When I was little, I said in my little my diary,
"When I grow up, I want to be a florist."
And that's what I said in my grade six diary.
And so when you were 16 and you could do work experience,
then I went down to the local florist
and I started cleaning buckets.
And then that turned into a Saturday job and that took off from there.
But it was always casual. Yes.
And I never wanted to be a full-time florist,
because I never wanted to curse the flower.
To curse a flower?
To curse a flower, because I know when it gets tough in floristry,
you know, there's a lot of pressure.
There's a whole side to floristry that people don't see.
And I never wanted to, you know, be upset with the flower.
I always wanted the love there for them.
They're my friends. I love them.
Tell me about your job as an airline hostess.
Yes, I love travelling and I love the gardens around the world,
so I thought, "OK, well, how can I see the gardens
"around the world?
"I'll become an international flight attendant."
So I did. I went off and I lived in Dubai.
And so then I would plan my trips
to find the gardens around the world.
So, for example, Kew Gardens in London - I'd go there.
I became a member,
because I'd fly back every month, sometimes twice a month,
and just walk around.
And then places like, for example, Munich,
there's always lilac in flower and spring on the nature strips
and just growing wild in strange places.
So I take my snips everywhere I go and chop, chop, chop, chop
and I take it back on the plane.
And they used to call me Flower Girl because I was always bringing
flowers back from overseas
and you were allowed to bring anything into Dubai.
And I'd have my trolley dolly bag and it's just full of flowers!
(LAUGHS)
I'd take them in, I'd pop them up the front of the plane
'cause was often quiet up there,
and they'd sit there in their first class
and I'd treat them well and fill up their vase,
keep them there along the flight.
You've obviously got a wide selection of plants here.
What would be your favourite at this time of the year?
At this time of the year?
The roses. The roses. I truly love roses.
And I like the meandering nature of this one.
She is my pride and joy. She is everything.
So, her name is Lamarque,
and she's an old fashioned rambling rose.
It's beautiful! It's just so flowery, isn't it?
She's just a joy.
And I wrapped my house in roses. (LAUGHS)
This beautiful one here. This is Mary Rose.
And I love her for her fragrance.
Just a beautiful myrrh fragrance. Just exquisite.
This is Abraham. Can't forget you. Beautiful Abraham Darby.
Beautiful fragrance, really sweet smelling.
And the colours of peach through to pink. Big, full heads.
This is David Austin, isn't it?
Yeah. All David Austin. He's bred them so beautifully.
Yeah.
This is Sharifa, and she's known for her beautiful perfume.
Ooh, wow. Yeah, really potent.
She's beautiful. She gets quite tall.
I didn't realise how tall she'd be when I popped her in.
And here we have Lichfield Angel, and she's a beautiful climber.
David Austin climber.
Really big cups, very generous.
Often two or three heads on her stems, and she's fabulous.
She just keeps giving.
Just fantastic. A lot of petals in each.
And then over here, we have Jude the Obscure.
I Love Jude. Full cup. Isn't that beautiful?
Yes.
And then there's William Morris.
That's another climber.
So I'm hoping all the way up, he'll go. Yeah.
A massive amount of flowers. Yeah, just a joy.
So, there's a lot of romance about your garden.
Yes.
I love that my garden evokes feelings, memories.
It's a place for everyone. It's dreamy. It's daydreamy.
I want to bring the joy of gardening back and the joy of flowers back.
I think people think it's time consuming
to have a garden like this, and it's actually not.
You just put them in. Talk to them. Watch them grow.
You know, it's not as much work as people think.