A Different Kind of Flower School
Graz Botanical Arts is not like Vienna or Salzburg. They do not really teach you to make wedding bouquets or commercial arrangements. Instead, they ask questions like: What happens to flowers after they die? Can an arrangement be too beautiful? Why do we cut things to make them pretty?
I attended two of their week-long summer workshops, in 2022 and 2023. Both times, I left confused, challenged, and seeing my work completely differently. That disruption was exactly what I needed after two years of classical training in Vienna.
The institute operates from a converted warehouse in Graz's arts district. No reception desk, no formal admissions office. You email Petra, the founder, and she responds with questions about your work and motivations. If she thinks you will contribute to the group dynamic, you get an invitation.
The Summer Workshop Format
Each workshop runs Monday through Saturday, about 40 hours of intensive work. Mornings begin with discussions: readings about environmental philosophy, viewings of contemporary artists working with organic materials, debates about the ethics of the flower industry. By 11 AM, we would move into the studio for hands-on work.
The first year, our theme was "Decay." We worked with flowers at every stage of their life cycle, including materials most florists would compost. I made a piece using only flowers I had bought three weeks earlier and let wilt completely. It was honestly one of the most beautiful things I have ever created.
Breaking My Habits
Vienna trained me well, maybe too well. I had developed formulas: these colors together, this proportion of focal flowers to filler, these mechanics for different vessel types. Graz broke all of that deliberately.
On the second day of my first workshop, Petra looked at my carefully composed arrangement and asked me to destroy it. Not adjust it, destroy it. Then reassemble something from the wreckage without adding new materials.
I was furious. I had spent two hours on that piece. But I did what she asked, and the result was something I never would have created intentionally. There was a chaotic energy, a sense of struggle visible in the work. It told a story.
"Now you're making art," Petra said. I still think about that moment constantly.
Workshop Themes I Experienced
- Decay (2022): Working with dying and dead plant material, exploring beauty in deterioration
- Scale (2023): Creating both miniature arrangements and room-sized installations
- Waste (offered 2024): Using only discarded materials from commercial floristry operations
- Local (offered 2025): Creating work using only materials foraged within walking distance
The Sustainability Philosophy
Graz operates with serious environmental consciousness. They source locally and seasonally, never use floral foam, and the workshop fee includes a carbon offset for participant travel. Every material that enters the studio either composts or gets documented and returned to its source.
Who Teaches at Graz
Petra Fischer founded the institute in 2015 after a career that spanned fine art sculpture and commercial event floristry. She got tired, she told us, of making things that disappeared after a single evening. She wanted to explore what flowers could mean beyond decoration.
Guest artists rotate through each workshop. I worked with a Japanese ikebana master who has been adapting traditional forms to European materials for 30 years. Another session featured a Berlin installation artist whose work I had seen in museums but never imagined I would learn from directly.
The teaching approach is more mentorship than instruction. Petra rarely demonstrates techniques. Instead, she asks questions, suggests experiments, and creates conditions where you discover things yourself. Frustrating if you want clear answers. Transformative if you are willing to get lost.
The Cohort Experience
Each workshop accepts 12 participants maximum. My cohorts included a museum curator from Berlin, a retired architect from Zurich who had taken up floristry at 65, a commercial florist from Tokyo questioning her entire career, and a young student who had never studied floristry formally but made extraordinary things from Instagram tutorials.
The diversity matters. Discussions between people with such different backgrounds pushed everyone's thinking. The Tokyo florist and I had the most heated debate about whether commercial floristry could ever be sustainable. Neither of us changed our minds, but my work changed because of that conversation.
Accommodations are not provided, but participants typically stay at nearby guesthouses or rent apartments together. My second year, four of us shared a flat for the week. We cooked dinners, drank too much Styrian wine, and kept working on personal projects late into the night.
Practical Information
Week-long summer workshops cost €1,800. This includes all materials, which are often unusual and expensive. (One workshop used only flowers imported from the instructor's native Japan; another incorporated hand-forged copper structures.) Meals are not included, but there is a communal kitchen.
Applications open in January for summer workshops. Petra reviews everyone personally and assembles groups she thinks will work well together. Having a portfolio helps, but I know participants who were accepted with little formal experience because their perspective seemed valuable.
How to Learn More
The Graz Botanical Arts Institute does not have a traditional website with course catalogs. Their presence is mostly through Petra's personal networks and word of mouth. The best approach is emailing directly or connecting through the contemporary arts community in Austria. Graz Arts & Culture Information
What I Took Away
Graz gave me permission to experiment. After years of learning rules, I needed someone to tell me it was acceptable to break them. Not out of ignorance, but from a place of knowledge, choosing to do something different.
My commercial work has not changed dramatically since Graz. Clients still want beautiful wedding flowers, and I give them that. But I approach each project differently now. I think about what the flowers are saying, what story they tell, what happens after the event ends. Sometimes that thinking does not change the final product. Sometimes it changes everything.
Who Should Attend
- Established florists wanting to push their creative boundaries
- Artists working in other mediums curious about botanical materials
- Anyone interested in sustainable and philosophical approaches to floristry
- People comfortable with ambiguity and self-directed learning
Probably Not Right For:
- Complete beginners who need foundational technique training
- Anyone seeking certification or credentials
- People who prefer structured curricula and clear outcomes
- Those primarily interested in commercial wedding or event work
Graz was the most uncomfortable educational experience I have had. It was also the most important. If you are at a point where you know how to do things but not why, or if you feel stuck in patterns that no longer serve you, this kind of disruption might be exactly what you need. Feel free to contact me if you want to discuss whether it might be right for you.