Nimrekha Collins at her Black Rose shop. Photo / David Haxton
Nimrekha Collins at her Black Rose shop. Photo / David Haxton
A local flower enthusiast has been invited to an international florist’s exhibition in Melbourne.
Nimrekha Collins lives in Raumati Beach with her family but owns Black Rose in the North City Shopping Centre in Porirua.
She competed in a designer competition last October, where the top junior and senior florists won the opportunity to travel to Australia to represent New Zealand florists in the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show, from March 29 to April 2.
She couldn’t be happier with what she won and said, “It was a pretty good prize”.
Nimrekha won the senior spot, with another florist from Palmerston North, Jessica Cooper, securing the junior spot.
While they are limited in what they can take to Australia from New Zealand, Nimrekha said they will be taking a couple of items from New Zealand stores, including pāua shells.
Despite not knowing what types of flowers they will be using, Nimrekha said she was really excited.
“This is a huge opportunity for me and my business.”
It’s a popular show, and Nimrekha said about 100,000 people from all around the world will be in attendance.
Nimrekha is originally from a small village in Sri Lanka, where she owned a gardening nursery.
She studied horticulture, but flowers were always her passion.
“Flowers weren’t very big over there, but plants were.”
Nimrekha's winning arrangement.
After moving to New Zealand in 2007, she worked in a bakery in Lower Hutt for a short time before meeting her husband.
A co-worker set up a blind date between Nimrekha and her now husband Jonathan Collins, and they hit it off.
Little did she know Jonathan came from a family of florists, with both his mother and sister owning florist shops.
It was actually her mother-in-law, Sheryl Watkin, who introduced her to floral arranging.
“Sheryl taught me everything I know.”
At first, Nimrekha just played around with arranging for a few days, but Sheryl saw potential in her and offered her a job at her florist business.
From there Nimrekha went on to earn a level two floristry certificate through New Zealand Professional Florists before eventually taking over her sister-in-law’s business Black Rose, where she is to this day.
She said while Jonathan doesn’t know much about flowers, he’s really great and helpful, and does a lot of her deliveries for her.
She aspires to compete in the Interflora World Cup, an international competition showcasing award-winning floral designers from around the world.
It’s a tough competition to get accepted into, with all competitors entering being required to have previously won a number of national floristry competitions.
Being the world’s biggest floristry competition in the world, Nimrekha said she has watched many of the previous ones and has always been impressed.
