Madeleine Lambert is just the kind of friend you wish you had. If she’s not giving away bunches of beautiful homegrown flowers, she’s inviting you into her garden, handing you a pair of secateurs and saying, “Go for it.” And lucky you, because for six months of the year, her garden is full to the brim with dahlias, zinnias, hydrangeas, strawflowers, scabiosa and whatever else has taken this keen gardener’s fancy. Flowers bring her joy, and she’s keen to spread it.
Haven for birds
Surprisingly, until five years ago, Madeleine was a flower-growing novice. She and her husband Wayne are no strangers to landscaping, though, having built four houses where they’ve designed and planted the gardens from scratch. However, as busy teachers and parents of two children, they’d always opted for a more low-maintenance style of garden with mainly shrubs, hedges and other greenery.
When it came to the landscaping for their current home, on the outskirts of Bethlehem, Tauranga, planting lots of natives was a top priority for Madeleine, who grew up among lush bush and birdlife in rural Hokianga.
The property is on the site of an old kiwifruit orchard (seedlings still come up) and backs onto a native reserve with karo and pōhutukawa trees. Adding to this borrowed landscape, she and Wayne planted more pōhutukawa as well as mānuka, harakeke and lemonwood. “It’s now a haven for tūī, grey warblers and kerurū, and a beautiful outlook,” says Madeleine.
They also planted an orchard full of nectarines, lemons, plums, avocados, limes, mandarins and even a pomelo, which was their daughter Grace’s favourite fruit when the family lived in Thailand during a five-year stint travelling through Asia.
Despite some serious gardening know-how, it wasn’t until Madeleine, who is an assistant head of secondary at a local school, experienced a period of near burnout during the Covid lockdown that she started thinking about growing flowers.
“I love my job, but I was absolutely exhausted from leading through the crisis, and I was working long hours and getting sick. Earlier in the year, one of my friends had given me a cute little bouquet of pompom dahlias.
“I did an internet dive to look at flowers and I remembered the joy the bouquet had given me. Then I remembered, when I was a little girl, my nana taking me to Hamilton Rose Gardens and her house smelling of sweet peas. I thought, ‘Maybe I could grow flowers to give away and bring joy to others also. It’s not like I don’t have enough space.”
Starting from scratch
The Lamberts’ 3500 sqm section had plenty of room to grow a picking garden, so Madeleine ordered some dahlia tubers and some seeds and planted them in an existing garden bed.
“I quickly discovered that I knew nothing about growing flowers. I had no idea how large dahlias grew and didn’t stake them, and my strike rate with germinating seeds was abysmal.”
But the ever-faithful dahlias grew. Madeleine was hooked, digging up more lawn so she could grow even more flowers, an arrangement that she says suited everyone because Wayne had never got to have the robot lawnmower he wanted, and her son Asher, whose job it was to do the lawns, now had less to mow.
Throwing herself into her new hobby, Madeleine tried lots of different types of flower seeds. “I talked to the horticulture teachers at work and learned all about how to best germinate seeds and propagate plants”
One of the most rewarding aspects of Madeleine’s new hobby has been giving posies to friends and family. “I absolutely love giving flowers away. There’s a beautiful honesty and humility to them and they just bring so much joy.”
Madeleine has also honed her flower-arranging skills by watching lots of online tutorials and attending courses. She even hosted a workshop at her home where she and her gardening friends hired a local florist to teach them how to make bouquets.
It wasn’t long before friends started asking if they could buy bouquets from her. “I felt pretty shy to do that at first but I had so many flowers that I couldn’t keep up with giving them away.”
So in 2023, Madeleine launched Petal & Twine and began selling bouquets and jars of flowers, including offering a weekly flower subscription, as well as supplying and arranging flowers for events.
“It’s more of a passion project than a side hustle. I call myself a little and local seasonal flower grower. However, it’s not so little any more, so I’ve had to admit to myself that it’s growing into a little flower farm.”
Despite having a large section, Madeleine says she always acquires more seeds than she can grow, so space is at a premium.
Wayne has now built some sturdy frames to stop her ever-increasing collection of dahlias from toppling in the wind. She grows many different types in different shades but says that whites, greens and pastels are her signature colours. ‘Bowen’, a white pompom dahlia that sometimes develops blush-coloured markings as it ages, is a much-loved variety.
She also has a dedicated green and white garden where she grows calla lilies, gypsophila, valerian, gomphrena, hydrangeas and a recently introduced summer stunner, vanilla-coloured sunflower ‘Procut White’.
Tidy and mulch
Not being a fan of cold, wet weather, Madeleine leaves some of the garden to rest in winter. She uses this time for tidying, dividing and pruning plants and nurturing the soil. She’s thrilled to have recently been gifted 300kg of cacao husks courtesy of a friend’s husband who is the managing director of Solomons Gold, an organic chocolate company, in Mount Maunganui.
“Cacao husks are the most incredible mulch for the garden, full of phosphate, potash and nitrogen,” she says. “The garden smells like chocolate for weeks after putting it down.”
Throughout the cooler offseason, year-round interest and structure is provided by ‘Lace Lady’ robinias, ‘Little Gem’ magnolias (which Madeleine uses to add greenery to arrangements) and Japanese buxus.
Cool research
A particularly meaningful part of the landscaping is a Japanese-themed garden beside the house, which reminds Wayne and Madeleine of their years living in Japan. “When we lived in Japan, we loved to visit the many ancient rock gardens, tea gardens, castles and temples. I was struck by how incredibly peaceful and contemplative they are,” says Madeleine.
The garden, which was designed and built by Wayne, features weeping acers, a hand-hewn granite bowl brought back from Japan, and a granite lantern that Wayne was given as a birthday gift.
Winter is also a great time to choose new varieties to grow in spring. “It’s the ultimate pastime, looking at it and sourcing seeds online. There’s so much promise in a tuber and a germinating seed.”
Madeleine says she loves how calming and nourishing time in her garden has been. “Growing flowers has been so good for my soul. It has brought great joy and more balance to my life. It’s one of my greatest pleasures to have a quiet time in the garden each morning, wandering around in my dressing gown.”
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