LONDON — Kai Kaimins never intended to disrupt the British flower industry. She drew a mind map, wandered into Columbia Road flower market on a Sunday, and followed her instincts. Seven years later, her studio, myladygardenflowers.com, has amassed a cult following, collaborations with Dior and Vogue, and a book titled Flower Porn — while quietly challenging decades of traditional floristry.
Kaimins landed in London at 18, an Australian from Melbourne with no clear plan. She worked as a nanny while exploring what came next. The turning point arrived almost accidentally: she listed everything she enjoyed on a mind map, included visiting the East End market, and that simple exercise became the blueprint for a career.
She earned a diploma in floristry from the Academy of Flowers in Covent Garden, learning wiring techniques and traditional methods. Internships followed. Then she moved to New York to freelance, falling in love with the craft. Stints in Paris and Melbourne deepened her skills. When she returned to London, she turned her experience into a business — one that, from the start, refused to follow the usual script.
Launching in a pandemic
The studio officially opened in 2020, a year that shuttered countless small businesses. Myladygardenflowers.com not only survived but thrived, pivoting repeatedly as lockdowns reshaped the industry. Kaimins’ bold, color-saturated arrangements — fiery reds, hot pinks, spray-painted foliage — injected energy into homes when people needed it most. Her following grew steadily.
“I’m not afraid to work with colour,” Kaimins said — an understatement for an aesthetic built on tonal experimentation, clashing hues, and sculptural forms. She works with seasonal blooms but treats them as a medium for playful, modern design.
Her client list reflects that positioning. Collaborations include Dior, Selfridges, Vogue, Swatch, and Lily Allen x Womaniser, alongside restaurants and independent shops across East London. These are not typical floristry accounts; they are the partners of a creative director who happens to use flowers.
A studio, not a shop
Kaimins describes herself as founder and CEO of a floral design studio, deliberately distinguishing her operation from a traditional flower shop. The space in Islington hosts popular workshops where participants learn to build floral sculptures and signature “flower clouds.” The studio also produces Flowers After Hours, a podcast that treats floristry as a cultural pursuit rather than a retail transaction.
Then there is the book. Flower Porn — a title Kaimins admits requires confidence to approve — abandons traditional bouquet arrangements for designer-focused recipes organized by season and color theory. It is, in her words, not a book your grandmother would leave on a coffee table.
The business name arrived the same way much of her approach has: over a bottle of wine, someone blurted it out, and it stuck.
Implications for British floristry
What makes Kaimins’ rise noteworthy is what it represents for an industry long resistant to change. British floristry has often equated tradition with quality and novelty with gimmickry. Kaimins has quietly dismantled that binary, proving that rigorous craftsmanship and a distinctive point of view can coexist — and that seasonal, considered work can also be loud, joyful, and provocative.
She arrived in London on a whim, found a market that felt like home, and built something the industry did not know it was missing.
“It was,” she said, “quite a good mind map.”
myladygardenflowers.com is based in Dalston, East London. Workshops and the Flowers After Hours podcast are available through the studio’s website.