Words: Lara Pacillo // Photos: Dylan Starczak
Carla Benuzzi loves waking up at 4am on a Monday to go to work, and when your workplace is as pretty as the Flowergirl store, we can understand why.
Carla opened Flowergirl when she was 23. This year marks nine years of being in the industry, and two in owning her own business.
As someone who often floats between interests, Carla says floristry has always stuck and feels more like a creative outlet than work.
As someone who often floats between interests, Carla says floristry has always stuck and feels more like a creative outlet than work.
“It was daunting when I decided I wanted to open my own store,” Carla says.
“I tried going to uni to study teaching, but I just kept coming back to this.”
“It’s the one thing that’s kept me grounded and has been constant for me.”
Before Flowergirl, Carla worked around town at a range of florists where she refined her skills in the artform. She did a Certificate III in Floristry before deciding to take things a step further in starting her own business, and Pirie Street was the perfect spot.
“I’ve always wanted to be on Pirie Street,” Carla says.
“I love the constant walking traffic and the interaction of having a store, and I want to help bring more life to spots in the city that aren’t just Grenfell Street and Rundle Mall.”
“There isn’t really much green on this strip either and I wanted to change that.”
Flowergirl is open Monday to Friday, while Carla’s weekends are often filled with wedding gigs. The business has allowed Carla to express her own unique styling and let her creativity reign free; describing her style as “vintage, almost country, and very English”.
She wants to encourage others to create careers out of their hobbies too and offers support in helping them do so.
“There’s so many young florists coming out and wanting to do this,” she says.
“People keep saying to me they want to start, and I say come with me! I want to mentor them, and I’ll always give someone an opportunity, even if they don’t have experience.”
As well as supporting younger florists in the industry, Carla says she hopes to see more flowers being gifted to men who want them. A 2021 study found that 78 per cent of men like receiving flowers, while only 25 per cent say they’ve actually received some.
Carla says this disparity could be a result of stigma that flowers are feminine, but she’s seeing a change come through with more people gifting flowers to men, especially with the younger generation.
“I feel like it’s the same outdated thing as ‘boys don’t cry’. That’s what I compare it to,” she says.
“It shouldn’t be a thing of gender though. There are girls that don’t like receiving flowers and there are boys that do and vice versa. It’s just asking them the question.”
Carla is mindful about how she sources and disposes her flowers to ensure Flowergirl is environmentally conscious.
She tries where she can to source locally, and buys a small assortment at a time so there’s a strong turnover and flowers are as fresh as possible. If there’s blooms left at the end of the week that are still thriving, Carla hands them out for free.
“Rather than waste what we don’t sell, we turn it into gifts of joy,” she says.
On what’s in store for the future, Carla says she’s not one to plan too far ahead, but maintaining a healthy work life balance is at the forefront.
“I think it would be very easy for me to keep going and run myself down very quickly, and I don’t want to hate my job. I want to keep loving it,” Carla says.
“I’m trying to keep that young part of me, so I set boundaries.
“I just want to keep doing floristry to the best of my ability, have fun with it, and see where it takes me.”
Flowergirl: 50 Pirie St, Adelaide 5000
