Floristry

Set yourself up for a career in the flower industry with MIT.

You will learn to develop your own sense of style in floral design.

Gain hands-on skills in creating floral arrangements for a range of events, including weddings.

Our graduates go on to exciting careers working for a range of retailers and event organisers.

At MIT we have the latest facilities, including a modern chiller, storage rooms and a bright and spacious teaching space modelled on a floristry retail shop.

Meet the team

Our floristry teaching staff come from a wide range of teaching and industry backgrounds.

What they all have in common are a high level of training, significant experience and knowledge in their field of expertise and a passion to help students succeed and make the most of their potential.

Meet some of our lecturers and find out why they love MIT.

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)

Your work experience or previous tertiary study may count towards achieving your qualification. Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) at MIT is designed for those who already have on-the-job skills and knowledge, but want to take their career to the next level with a qualification.

With RPL we can measure and match your existing skills against credits in our courses – creating a tailored path of study that will not only save you money but also help you to complete your qualification faster. Learn more.

See why more people choose floristry at MIT

MIT is the quality choice. Study floristry and graduate work-ready.

“I have 30 years’ experience in this Industry."

"In short, they nailed it. We were delighted with the results."

"MIT was a great starting point for me, I've been a florist for seven years now."

"We have small class sizes, so you get more one-on-one time with the lecturer."

"I feel encouraged by the lecturers which has given me confidence."

"The tutors are lovely, I can’t recommend them highly enough."

"The friendliness at this place is quite incredible."

"We do everything hands-on which has been the best part of this course."

In the news: MIT students win gold at the NZ Flower and Garden Show 2018.

We are so grateful for the amazing job you guys did.

"Kia ora, I’m one of the floristry teachers here at MIT School of Floristry. Come and study floristry at MIT, you can explore your creativity and you'll find yourself in a room full of like-minded people, you'll learn and grow together. We've got really good connections for the industry. Some of that is our own graduates who are out in business running their own businesses now."

Lisa Gilmour
MIT lecturer

Our MIT students gained invaluable hands-on experience working with the Silver Scroll Awards. Here’s what our industry partner had to say:

"When the APRA Silver Scroll Awards was looking for a partner to work with on the table centrepieces for our annual award ceremony, it was suggested that we get in touch with the floristry course at MIT, which had a reputation for encouraging creativity and innovation in their students’ work.

We loved the enthusiasm that Lisa and her team had for the project, and the opportunity to work on a real-life job seemed to fit nicely with the desire we had to collaborate with floristry students who had fresh ideas and new approaches to centrepieces.

The group we worked with were super professional – we gave them a pretty loose brief, and were very impressed with the prototypes they came up with. We were also impressed with the flexibility shown is using a variety of styles and options to create an overall vibe which fit perfectly with a music awards show. The pieces they produced were beautiful – appropriately celebratory and colourful, perfectly arranged, the right size for our event, and much admired by the guests.

Their efficiency on the event day was also notable – they managed themselves entirely, delivered the centrepieces and laid them all out in very quick time, which was greatly appreciated in the midst of a very busy event day schedule.

In short, they nailed it. We were delighted with the results, and we hope it was a helpful experience for the students to have the opportunity to work on a real-world large-scale event with high-quality materials and a brief that gave them the opportunity to think outside the box."

Lydia Jenkin
Industry partner

As master-crafters in the art of floral arrangements, see below to view the stunning creations the students at MIT produced for the Silver Scroll Awards.

"MIT was a great starting point for me, I've been a florist for around seven years now and it all started there. I learned from a really supportive bunch of professional tutors and made a large number of industry connections that got me working in some of the best florists in Auckland.

The tutors were all incredible people with a lot of experience and I made a really cool bunch of friends, some of whom I'm still connected with today. I have dabbled in other professions over the last few years but have always liked to keep in practice and get involved during the wedding season. I now have my own business, Lady of the Meadow, which I'm really excited about. If you are a creative and you're willing to work hard, I would suggest giving MIT a go."

Jazz Wilson
MIT graduate

Jazz Wilson has built a business around her love for crafting luxury bouquets and flower arrangements and is proud to introduce it to Marlborough. She had founded 'Lady of the Meadow', an upmarket wedding and events florist business.

To further see how Jazz turned her life-long passion into a business, you can read the article below.

"I love painting, drawing, and anything with art, so I chose to study floristry at MIT. We have small class sizes, so you get more one-on-one time with the lecturer, which is amazing. MIT is a really good school. It's given me the techniques, the talent, and the way of doing things in the right way."

Shakera Fleet
MIT student

"I feel encouraged by the lecturers which has given me the confidence I didn’t have at the beginning. The people here make me feel comfortable and I feel like I am at home, as I came to New Zealand five years ago. MIT is a very cultural place with lots of different cultural backgrounds. I personally like cultural things very much and when I see MIT promoting a lot about it, I feel very connected to New Zealand's culture."

Fiona Yuan
MIT student

"I came in late last year and I met one of the tutors, I got an idea about where I'd be studying, what I’d be learning and that really helped me make the decision because it was quite a hard decision to retrain. The tutors are lovely, I can’t recommend them highly enough."

Celeste Sterling
MIT student

"It’s a great Institute to train at because the classes are really small, the lecturers give you lots of one to one time and the curriculums are really varied and cover all aspects of floristry really well. The friendliness at this place is quite incredible. If you've got a dream and you want to do it, follow it because it’s really worthwhile. It doesn't matter how old you are, they accept you which is great."

Bettina Renwick
MIT student

"We do everything hands-on which has been the best part of this course because I'm definitely more a hands-on learner. My lecturers have been great. They've been really good at helping me with my disability, it's been really good. I only really have one functioning hand. So it's been really good to have that sort of help to figure things out in a way that I can physically do them."

Dee Louise Cosford
MIT student

Congratulations to the staff and students at Manukau Institute of Technology School of Floristry, who won gold at the New Zealand Flower and Garden Show 2018 – New Zealand’s version of the Chelsea Flower Show.

The level 4 students were awarded a gold certificate at for their floral arch design, entered into the Floral Fashion Zone competition under the theme “Our place.”

As a student at MIT, while you study you will gain experience working on floral projects for real-life customers, from weddings to corporate events. Emma asked our School of Floristry to make her wedding flowers – from the bride and bridesmaids bouquets to the groom and groomsmen corsages and ceremony and reception bouquets – and this is what she had to say:

“Just wanted to say a huge thank you once again to you and the students. I absolutely loved the flowers and they were exactly what I had envisaged (and better!). Such a big part of the day and really bought the theme I wanted to life so thank you so much.”