Our 2025 National Student Floristry Competition theme was ‘Thanks Mum’. Floristry students were invited to create a “Hogarth style” curved arrangement in a base medium.

Certificate III students from TAFE and private floristry colleges which are Registered Training Organizations across Australia participated through their colleges.

The 2025 winners are:

First place: Angel Treanor, TAFE NSW, Padstow Campus

Celebrating her mum and best friend. “For her, the ocean’s edge is where her heart feels at home. For me, home will always be found within her.” Angel dug deep into the symbolism of the ocean which in mythology ‘represents femininity, fertility, strength, passion, and a mother’s wisdom. All these qualities live within my mum. She has always been my safe place, my rock, my ocean’. Angel focused on sustainability using a shell shaped ceramic vase found in an op shop filled with chicken wire in place of floral foam to support the flowers. The entry is full of symbols - two king proteas are the main focal point, representing Angel and her mum surrounded by white flowers (flannel flower, thryptomene, tea tree, and everlasting daisies), to soften and unite the surrounding colours of pale pink and bursts of golden wattle ‘like sunlight after a storm’.

2nd place: Isabelle Ryan, South Metropolitan TAFE, Perth, WA

‘Native heart’ is Isabelle’s tribute to her mum and nana, honouring ‘their nurturing presence and the beauty found in resilience. It’s a thank you not just for the love they’ve given, but for the grounding values they’ve passed down’. Isabelle grew up on a farm in Albany WA ‘where Australian wildflowers were part of everyday life’. ‘The S-shaped curve symbolises the steady, guiding presence of a mother figure, gentle yet powerful. Its flowing line captures the way these women have shaped and supported me through life, with strength and care’. Isabelle went into great detail about the design elements and principles she used, beautifully describing the forms and textures of the products used for her split complimentary colour scheme of red violet, yellow and green.

3rd place: Natalie Wang Pearsons School of Floristry, Sydney, NSW

Natalie designed her entry to thank her mum ‘for her unconditional love, her beauty and strong support, being best friend, being my guide, her tireless efforts, her love is the melody of my life. Her strength has been my inspiration’. The flowers were chosen for their strong symbolism connected to the theme, for example the focal Flowers -Protea Pink Ice and White Ice - ‘symbolize the courage and transformation, resilience and endurance’ shown by Natalie’s mum as she raised her and her siblings in her adoptive country of Australia. Her filler flowers - paper daisies, Leucadendron and Kangaroo Paw - unified and flowed through the arrangement adding accents, colour and texture. Foliage and waxflower stems created a dainty Hogarth curve.

Purely Australian winner: Emily Fox, TAFE NSW, Hornsby Campus

Emily chose a ‘rustic Australian’ theme for her Mother’s Day gift for her mum. As a challenge, she incorporated Banksia ‘Giant Candles’, not often seen in this role. The design sits atop a tall wooden pedestal made of Australian Blackbutt timber ‘which ‘has been saved from landfill by being passed from generation to generation’ in the family. Emily used the height of the pedestal to make the arrangement ‘quite large, allowing the ‘S’ curves of the design to hang much lower but still remain to scale with the display stand’. She was one of the few students who successfully executed a Hogarth curve. Her near complementary colour scheme features ‘pink-purple (representing love and femininity) and yellow (the colour for joy and friendship). The focal flowers are a brown hue (a mixture of the two near complementary colours). The dominant colour is yellow, expressed through the billy buttons and wattle used throughout the design’. ‘Round shapes are repeated in the wattle flowers, bud wax, Hooker banksias and billy buttons’ with repetition of this form creating harmony’. These ‘contrast with the cylindrical shape of the giant candle and long, linear shape of the various foliages’.

State winner - Queensland: Martie Wilken, TAFE QLD, Southbank

‘Thanks mum’- “Two very small words for a lifetime of gratitude — how can I ever thank her enough?” ‘Despite difficult circumstances, Mum remained a giving, caring person, raising us with what I like to call a “soft heart and soft hands”. Martie researched the Hogarth curve and noted its symbolism - ‘Growth and movement – life’s journey with its curves and changes; Balance in life – harmony between strength and softness; and Continuity – a mother’s unending love and guidance’. She used flowers for their symbolism, starting with the king protea which connects to her South African heritage and its strength because it flourishes after fire. ‘A sustainable mosaic vessel crafted from repurposed Mother of Pearl added meaning to the tribute. Life, like mosaic, can be imperfect and fragmented, yet still beautiful’.

State winner – NSW: Meredith Greer, TAFE NSW, Padstow Campus

Meredith drew inspiration from her mother who ‘as both a nurse and a midwife, dedicated herself to caring for others and bringing new life into the world.’ ‘Our family home was in Waratah Street, where her love for Australian stories and native flora was always present, certainly around us in the bush, but alive in our garden’. So Waratahs were an obvious choice as the dominant focal flower, linking to the family home and to her mother as the strong centre of the family. ‘The Hogarth curve symbolises grace and continuity that reflects her life’s journey, a balance of strength and softness, service and compassion. The flowing line mirrors the nurturing rhythm of her work as a midwife and the continuity of generations within our family’. Meredith based her design in a giant tea cup filled with chicken wire in recognition that her mum’s ‘entire day is broken up with cups of tea’.

Territory winner – ACT: Jemima Pike, Canberra Institute of Technology, ACT

This entry was inspired by the antique ginger jars her mother has been collecting since before Jemima was born! In homage to her mum, Jemima used a blue and white porcelain vase to hold her arrangement, filing the vase with chicken wire to hold the stems. To help create the S shape of the design, Jemima selected naturally curved plant materials and placed the stems with the flowers facing in the direction of the curves to further enhance them. As her mum loves pink, Jemima used mostly dusky pink flowers together with whites, grey green, and creamy yellow to create a split complementary colour palette. Her mum’s favourite flowers dominate - Blushing bride (because her mum loves their fluffy centres), along with Protea ‘Pink Ice’, Leucadendron ‘Autumn’ and flowering ‘Silver Princess’ gum, together with kangaroo paws and pastel pink paper daisies to add interesting texture and shape. White waxflower and Eriostemon added contrasting highlights to a beautifully balanced and harmonious design.

State winner – Victoria: Hailey Lee, Holmesglen Institute of TAFE, VIC

‘A connected world’ is Hailey’s visualization of her mother’s life evolving from ‘a girl who loved flowers, a woman who achieved her dream of owning a flower shop, and a strong figure who faced the world as “mother”. Hailey herself has gained an appreciation that ‘the fragility I experience as a woman has grown into empathy and compassion as I have aged’, so ‘over time, I have come to understand the commonalities between my mother as a parent and as a woman’. ‘My radial arrangement extending outward from the centre, combined with flowers facing each other, visually represents the connection and resemblance between my mother and me’, ‘harmonies illustrate the bond and relationship we share, highlighting the expansion of my own world’. Flowers were chosen for their symbolism, e.g. ‘Banksia and Isopogon, both from the Proteaceae family’, to symbolize mother and daughter and ‘represent our inherent similarities’.

State winner - WA: Tayla Dique, South Metropolitan TAFE, Perth, WA

Tayla was inspired by the Australian bush when designing her entry which pays tribute to her ‘outdoorsy Mum who loves gardening’. She wanted it ‘to be a little bit wild and completely natural to represent the bush and its wild spirit. Earthy tones, mostly greens and browns and using all sustainable materials make it fit the theme’. An earthy coloured vase was filled with ‘chicken wire wrapped around biodegradable floral wool to ensure hydration and stability’. Tayla then ‘wired on a eucalyptus stick to create the general ‘S’ line of the arrangement before adding foliage to create the skeleton before finally adding the focal and filler flowers’. She placed the foliage at angles to emphasize the ‘S’ shape of her design. Paper wire secured products to ensure the arrangement was well balanced and sturdy, which would have been tricky because of the eucalyptus stick! Flowers used are 2 different banksias, Geraldton wax, gum, wattle, grevillea and Billy Buttons, all Australian natives to fit with her garden theme, and echoing our native bush. Lovely colour harmonies between the Banksia menziesii and waxflower at the centre and a flow of yellow along the ‘S’ create emotion within the design.

HIGHLY COMMENDED

Marmonie Altman, TAFE NSW Wollongbar Campus

To Yuen Do, TAFE NSW Padstow Campus

Elysha Dobson, TAFE NSW Moss Vale Campus

Brooke Shelley, TAFE NSW Ryde Campus

Laura Taylor, Canberra Institute of Technology, ACT

This year we had an outstanding 102 entries- proving very difficult for our panel of judges. Head to the WildFlowers Australia Facebook page to view all the 2025 Competition entries.

WFA Facebook

A huge shout out to our generous sponsors - Sydney Markets, East Coast Wildflowers, Sustainable Floristry Network, Helix Australia, Wafex Australia, Wildflower Network of NSW, Flowers Magazine, Koch and Co, What Cut Flower is That?, International Protea Association, Premium Greens Australia, Ausflora Pacific, Marrick Nursery, Kalympa Wildflowers, Ripe Moo Vine & Wyndham Flower Farm.

We are looking forward to seeing what 2026 brings for the Competition!

2025 National Student Floristry Competition