Mercedes Sarmini is the originator and energy behind Floral Gossip and Flowers by Mercedes.
Floral Gossip started out as a weekly radio program on Talking Lifestyle 2UE The Good Life with Radio personality Jono Coleman that shares Mercedes intimate knowlegde about the inner workings, love of life and passion of cut flowers.
Mercedes is also a regular contributor to the Real World Gardner radio show with Marianne Cannon on 2RRR 88.5 FM community radio network across Australia, from 5 pm to 6 pm and Radio Active 2RRR 88.5 FM community radio with Amie Bransgrove and Julie Elleson every Wednesday night from 6 pm to 7 pm.
Mercedes has been in love with cut flowers since she was a small girl. Flowers and gardening have seen her through some of life’s most challenging events and given her strength and courage.
Mercedes has also appeared at the Melbourne International Garden Show, Floriade ACT in Canberra as well as hosted LIVE events at Flower Power nurseries over the last 15 years and Bunnings Warehouse sharing her knowledge about cut flowers and flower arranging with thousands of people, totalling 119 LIVE shows and counting as well as the personalities and love life of cut flowers. No shrinking violets or demure here.
Blooming Personalities to be launched in 2020
A trained florist, in 2012 Mercedes established a 12-week VET program to train Aboriginal women in the art of floristry design. She has also published a series of four out of seven books on DIY Flower arranging for Kids.
In 2019 Mercedes launched a series of floral educational videos x 8 and infomercials on her Floral Gossip YOU TUBE channel so that we can all learn more about the cut flowers we buy, how to care for and arrange them to get the most out of them.
Blooming Personalities is a lavishly illustrated 180-page book that provide and informative and engaging romp through the stories, myths, spiritual and medicinal properties of some of Australia’s most popular cut flowers.
Mercedes shares her knowledge, tips and secrets about how to treat your cut flowers to make them last longer in your vase or arrangement, because we all need the therapeutic healing of flowers in our lives, whether we’re female or male.
In this book you’ll learn:
- the specific treatment each cut flower needs to maximise its blooming time;
- how to select the best and freshest cut flowers from those available at your florist and the best time of year (or even day of the week) to buy them;
- which cut flowers are male and which are female, and how that affects the way you prepare them for your vase, and
- which cut flowers are safe to have in the house with cats and dogs.
And, given that Mercedes is a very rare species – a floral therapist – she shares how to pick the right cut flowers for what’s going on in your life at any moment.
There’s also plenty of fun facts about each cut flower as well as the sacred message and healing each flower brings into your life. You’ll find out the medicinal properties of each variety too.
Blooming Personalities profiles the seven most popular cut flowers in each season and provides a wealth of information about what to look for when buying them, what sex they are (and yes this does make a difference to how you care for them – no surprises there), their fragrance, what their significance is and how they can help you transform your thoughts and actions.
It also includes useful tips and advice on how to choose cut flowers, make them last longer, which flowers are always thirsty and those that prefer the sweeter things in life.
Blooming personalities also includes over lists for easy reference including:
- Allergy Free Cut flowers
- Anniversary Cut flowers
- Australian Birth Month Cut flowers
- Birth Month Cut flowers
- Edible Cut flowers
- Fragrant Cutflowers
- Modern Cut flowers
- Toxic Flowers – Cats, Dogs & Horses
- Waterholic Cut flowers
Flowers By Mercedes
At Flowers By Mercedes we say that if you wake up to cut flowers you are guaranteed a better start to the day. Mercedes mission is to spread smiles all over the world with the use of cut flowers.
