Everything Ariella Hill creates is destined to disappear.

Every arrangement eventually wilts. Every installation is dismantled. Every stem that passes through Rae Blooms arrives with an expiry date.

Yet somehow, her work has never felt more alive.

For nearly two decades, the Australian florist and founder of Rae Blooms has built a practice somewhere between floristry, sculpture and installation, one rooted not in permanence but in accepting its opposite. Flowers have become her chosen language for talking about beauty, memory, intuition and the art of letting go.

We met Ariella to talk about embracing chaos, creating her first exhibition Living Matter, and why success has very little to do with recognition and everything to do with getting to touch flowers every day.

Awa: Your world seems incredibly busy right now. How are you?

Ariella: It’s kind of all over the place, but in a really good way,” Ariella laughs. “Every day looks completely different. There are always new projects, new designs, different environments to work in. It’s exciting.

It’s a surprising answer. Her work feels calm, almost meditative, yet she thrives in constant movement.

I actually really enjoy the chaos. I don’t think I’m very good at slowing down.

She laughs again.

I always imagine spending a whole day on the beach with a book, but after an hour I want to get up, ride my bike, go for a walk or start making something. I’m terrible at doing nothing.

Flowers have been part of your life for almost twenty years. Do you remember where that relationship began?

I’ve always loved making things. Flowers just happened to become the medium.

For years she worked instinctively, building arrangements, learning by doing and developing the visual language that would eventually become Rae Blooms.

The real turning point came much later.

I was travelling through Istanbul during a period where I really wasn’t doing very well mentally. I wandered into a tulip festival and I remember walking around thinking… oh. I actually feel happy.

She pauses.

Being surrounded by nature shifted something in me. When I got back to Melbourne, I threw myself into flowers. That was the moment I realised this wasn’t just something I enjoyed. It was what I wanted my life to revolve around.

You never really followed a traditional path into the creative industry.

No. I knew pretty early on that I wanted creative freedom more than anything else.

Rather than going to art school, Ariella learnt by making. One project became another, one opportunity led to the next.

I don’t think there was ever another option in my head. I just knew this was what I wanted to do.

Looking back, she believes trusting that instinct was one of the best decisions she ever made.

At the beginning I was working ridiculous hours and making almost no money. But I loved it. I think when you genuinely love what you’re doing, you find a way to keep going.

Your work constantly reminds us that beauty is temporary. Has working with flowers changed your relationship with impermanence?

Completely. I always joke that painters get to keep their work forever.

I don’t.

Everything I make dies

Rather than finding that sad, Ariella sees it as one of the greatest gifts flowers have given her.

They’ve taught me how to let go. You make something beautiful, you appreciate it while it’s there, and then you let it disappear.

There is something deeply refreshing about that philosophy.

In an industry that often revolves around preserving, documenting, and archiving everything, flowers quietly ask us to do the opposite.

I think they’ve made me much less attached to outcomes. They’re beautiful because they don’t last forever.

Working with nature also means giving up control.

That’s actually one of my favourite parts.

She explains that no matter how carefully you plan, flowers ultimately decide for themselves.

You might have an idea in your head, but then something opens differently or bends another way, and suddenly the whole arrangement changes.

Rather than fighting that unpredictability, she’s learnt to welcome it.

Those imperfections usually end up being the best part. Nature always has better ideas than I do

Does this make nature feel less like inspiration and more like your collaborator?

Mother Nature is the greatest creative person.

She says it without hesitation.

We’ll never create anything more incredible than what already exists.

Rather than copying nature, Ariella sees herself entering into conversation with it.

I love creating things that make people stop for a second. I want them to wonder if something is real.

Wonder, she says, is something she keeps returning to.

Nature constantly surprises us. I think creativity should do the same.

Your first exhibition, Living Matter, feels like a turning point. Why did now feel like the right time?

“I’d been wanting to make something completely mine for years.”

After spending so much of her career creating for clients through Rae Blooms, Living Matter became an opportunity to step entirely into her own world.

“I wanted it to feel whimsical.”

She smiles.

“Colourful. Weird. A little unexpected.”

Rather than simply presenting flowers, she wanted to create an immersive environment that blurred the line between nature and fantasy.

“I wanted people to walk in and feel a little surprised. To question what they were looking at.”

For Ariella, the exhibition wasn’t about making flowers look more beautiful.

It was about reminding people how strange and extraordinary they already are.

“I think we forget how surreal nature can be.”

If you had to describe yourself as a bouquet, what would you be?

She laughs.

Not a bouquet. I’d be a Marigold installation. Yellow specifically.

Whenever I smell them I feel at home. They have this earthy flower smell I cant get enough of. I could live in it. 

As Rae Blooms has grown, you’ve gradually built a team around you. What has it been like learning to let other people into your creative process?

It’s been really lovely because it happened so naturally.

For years, Ariella carried every part of the business herself.

I obviously love making flowers. The spreadsheets, budgets and logistics…Not so much.

As Rae Blooms continued to grow, bringing more people into the business allowed her to focus more fully on the creative side of the studio.

Accepting that help wasn’t immediate.

Over time, she’s learnt:

Accepting help doesn’t make the work any less mine. If anything, it’s allowed me to make it even more my own.

What does success look like to you today?

She barely hesitates.

If I don’t touch flowers for a day, I get a little crazy.

Honestly, success is getting to work with flowers every single day.

Not awards.

Not recognition.

Not bigger budgets.

Simply the privilege of spending her days making something beautiful.

Perhaps that’s why Ariella’s work feels the way it does.

It’s never really been about flowers.

It’s about paying attention. Following curiosity wherever it leads. Trusting nature more than perfection. And finding beauty in things precisely because they won’t last forever.

In a world obsessed with permanence, Ariella Hill has built an entire practice around letting go. And somehow, that makes everything she creates feel all the more unforgettable.