Slow Blooms

You’ll find Slow Blooms just out of Matakana, on an acre of leased land behind a gelato shop. Over the past year Rebecka has transformed this piece of ex-vineyard land into a beautiful, productive flower garden featuring an incredible array of annuals and perennials including dahlias, zinnia, sunflowers, cornflowers, strawflower, cosmos, lilies and spring bulbs (to name but a few), plus a vast range of healing and culinary herbs - all grown sustainably, following permaculture principles.
The name Slow Blooms is a play on the Slow Foods and Slow Flowers movement, which is all about getting your produce locally, in season, and taking your time with it.
Having come to permaculture through growing vegetables and fruit for her family, exploring how the principles could be applied to growing flowers seemed a natural progression for Rebecka.
“Permaculture can be a lot of different things to different people. But one pretty simple way that my teacher Trish Allan describes it, is that permaculture is a design system which helps us live our lives in such a way, that we leave the planet better than we found it. So to put it simply— I'm creating this little piece of paradise, full of flowers that are beautiful and smell amazing. I'm creating it with care for the land, in a way which will make it better, more diverse, and full of life - and then I share it with people!”
Slow Blooms pick-your-own garden is open to the public (current opening hours are published on their Facebook page) but if you’d like a guided tour of the garden hosted by Rebecka, you can book through Secret Gardens.
Rebecka will also be running a range of workshops on growing, harvesting and arranging naturally grown flowers, growing and preparing herbal teas, and seed collecting.