Emma Bass knows more than most about the therapeutic power of nature. The former nurse’s large photographic works of vases bursting with blooms brighten up homes, hospitals and clinicians’ treatments and waiting rooms across the world and are soon to be part of an overseas study on the impact of flowers on wellbeing.

When Emma was awaiting a hysterectomy operation in 2023, she decided she needed to take a dose of her own floral medicine and create a garden that she could look out at from her living room while she was recuperating after surgery. “The front garden had never had flowers in it, and it felt unresolved. So I decided to make a beautiful front garden that would heal me.”

Although it meant a temporary loss of privacy, her first bold move was to remove a struggling griselinia hedge that separated the house from the street and replace it with a hardy hedge of Ficus ‘Tuffi’, which she favours for its uplifting mid-green foliage.

Next came the foliage and flowers. Emma, a maximalist who adores colour, went for a highly saturated palette of brilliant blue lobelias, fluorescent pink impatiens, fuzzy-faced ‘Teddy Bear’ sunflowers, and vibrant vireyas and zinnias. She also went flamboyant on foliage, opting for colour-splashed pink and green coleus and heucheras in various shades of lime green and plum.

Then to create sculptural interest, Emma got handy with her secateurs, clipping Pittosporum ‘Little Kiwi’ shrubs into balls and also a buxus into a heart shape. “It’s all a bit bonkers and I love it,” she says.

Round the back of the house the landscaping is what you would describe as Palm Springs meets subtropical Auckland. Bright red canna lilies and waving palms border a swimming pool with a favourite Christine Hellyer sculpture at one end. Other sculptural pieces include a retro concrete seal with a ball on its nose and a colourful mosaic seat Emma made years ago.

Emma also made good use of a lava flow, an interesting geological feature of many houses at the base of Maungawhau Mt Eden, filling it with plants that like it dry and rocky. A springy carpet of pink-flowering Spanish shawl ebbs over the edges of the rock while strappy-leaved Poor Knights lilies take centre stage, setting the garden alight with their bright red toothbrush-like flowers in spring.

Emma’s studio, in the basement of the house, overlooks this lush backyard paradise.

It was originally a purpose-built dance studio where New Zealand dancer and choreographer Candy Lane’s mother taught classes.

“I’ve been told that it used to be a party house back in the day,” says Emma. “There were gold-padded glitter walls and chandeliers, and jazz musicians would go back there after concerts and be downstairs in the basement, crooning until 3 am. They had a pie warmer and mirror tiles and a red bar.”

The original multicoloured linoleum tiles and an elevated section of the floor are existing reminders of the studio’s party-girl past. Now it’s filled with Emma’s extensive collection of mid-century vases, which regularly feature in her photographs. She also hosts artist’s talks here where people can view her work, walk around the garden and find out about Emma’s other projects.

One recent collaboration is a luxurious wool silk scarf, which Emma has designed alongside Kiwi luxury scarf company Good & Co to raise money for breast cancer research charity Breast Cancer Cure. Drawing on her work Radiance, it features vibrant pink peonies, which historically have been associated with healing, resilience and femininity.

Having spent 12 years working as a nurse in London and Auckland, Emma saw firsthand the challenges that breast cancer can bring. “This collaboration is profoundly meaningful to me. I looked after people with all kinds of cancers, including breast cancer, and saw so many heartbreaking, humbling stories. But in all that sadness, I also saw moments of beauty.”

Emma grew up around hospitals. Her father was a cardiologist at Auckland Hospital, and every Christmas from the age of 10, Emma would go and paint the hospital windows in the coronary care ward. “My father used to say, ‘It’s really important to help people’, so when I left school, nursing seemed like the most practical way to do that.”

An interest in photography niggled away at her though, and after coming back to New Zealand and feeling disheartened by the fact that her brother was earning more as a house painter than she was as an intensive care nurse, she decided to retrain and embrace her hobby fully, becoming a successful editorial photographer.

It was after her marriage broke up, while she had two young children, that she started photographing flowers. “Whenever I was having a bad day, I’d try and make something beautiful out of the flowers that I had gathered from friends’ gardens and on roadside verges. It was my survival thing, to find little moments of beauty in every day, and it got me through a very difficult time.”

Emma has seen first-hand the impact beauty can have on people’s wellbeing, and her mission to help people through her work has come full circle with her photography. There are more than 20 of her works at hospitals throughout Auckland, including one in the ward her father worked in.

Whether it’s painting flowers or mending broken vases with kintsugi, a Japanese art where pottery is mended with gold and lacquer, Emma is constantly busy with creative projects. Lately, she’s been knitting herself socks (with flowers on them, obviously). While she knits, she enjoys looking out at her young garden. “Then I’ll go out there and do a bit of weeding and think about putting something new in there. It brings me joy.”

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Recreate the colourful, subtropical feel of Emma’s vibrant garden

Mass appeal: One of the easiest ways to create impact is with block planting. Red cannas by the pool create a vibrant wall of green and red while a border of dwarf agapanthus lead the eye down into the lower garden.

And repeat: While an assortment of different-coloured plants grow in the front garden, Emma has dotted key plants, such as lobelia, throughout the beds, creating
a visual link that keeps things loosely cohesive.

Take a leaf: To get a lush, tropical look, incorporate a variety of large-leafed plants with different shapes, such as sculptural bird-of-paradise, sword-leafed Poor Knights lilies, umbelliferous palms and spiky Aloe speciosa.

Size it up: Create interest and depth by making sure you have a range of plants that are different heights and shapes. You might like to get snippy with it and sculpt small shrubs into topiary balls or other forms.

Break the rules: When it comes to choosing plants and colour schemes, feel free to ignore trends. “Don’t be afraid to mix up your colours,” says Emma. “People will say things like, ‘You can’t put yellow and pink together.’ Of course you can. Trust your gut and do what works for you aesthetically.”

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Emma’s Breast Cancer Cure scarves are available to purchase from breastcancercure.org.nz