Brogo's Darcie Nicol Floral Designs opens shop in Bega town centre

Her stunning arrangements have burst onto the town with the help of Wattle & Hide Homewares who have leased a portion of their shop to support the business.

Darcie grew up in Brogo and attended school in the area before moving to Canberra to work as a veterinary nurse managing an emergency referral hospital.

She initially started a course in floristry "just to meet some people and make some friends", and said she wanted to do something different as her life was very focused around animals.

After six months of floristry work experience she was offered a full-time role and jumped at the opportunity to to change up her profession and let go of the chaos and massive workload at the veterinary hospital.

Darcie did a stint in Sydney before moving back home to and eventually establishing her own business as a florist working from a home studio space in Brogo, something she said was a "big unknown".

"I have been here long enough to see florists open and close."

After moving back she did a bit of vet nursing again to earn a living but as lockdowns were going on she started experimenting with floristry from her home studio.

Darcie said the COVID pandemic brought with it its own challenges, such as the price of flowers skyrocketing and rapid decline of the flower import industry.

Luckily for Darcie however, the local home delivery service went gangbusters.

"People couldn't get out and see people so we did so many bouquets just for people who couldn't see one another," she said.

Through social media and word of mouth, her businesses really began to blossom.

She also started doing weddings and events all the way from Canberra to Eden, and for the last 11 months has stocked fresh and dried flowers at Pambula Collective.

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On November 8 Darcie opened a shop in Bega because her home studio was becoming too busy and she wanted to have a hub closer to Bega - where the majority of her clientele was based.

She also wanted to create a healthier work life balance where she she felt she had a dedicated workplace.

"It's nice to be in a shop where pretty much everything is Australian sourced, and it's nice to have different items in the shop that people can buy and look at too," she said.

Darcie said native flowers have continued to be very popular, but she does arrangements with "everything from tropical to seasonal".

She said sometimes people had expectations of certain flowers they wanted her to include but that relied heavily on imported flowers or were not seasonal in Australia at the time.

"I really like to be able to educate people on when to really enjoy certain flowers, and at other times of the year to enjoy a difference flower - that's fantastic."

She said Australia was just finishing its protea season (although proteas were native to South Africa) and that banksias would come in over summer.

She said dried flowers continued to be a big trend, but couldn't be sure if it would last or not as people would often say their grandmothers had dried flowers years ago.

Darcie always prioritises Australian growers and has built great connections to Far South Coast growers at Wyndham, Buckajo, and Brogo - who all supply her with locally grown flowers.

Darcie Nicol Floral Designs will be open from 8:30am until 4:30pm at Ayres Place in Bega Monday to Friday. The shop will also be open on Saturdays from 9:30am until 1pm.

Darcie will still be doing home deliveries and in the coming months will open up an online ordering system.

Check out Darcie's Instagram page and for urgent orders or inquiries call her on 0459 060 295.

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