Wade Kingsley softly lifts the petal of a dahlia, its colour a vibrant pinkish-red. "This one's called Carlos Watermelon," Wade, 46, says. "It's my favourite at the moment."
He might not look like your typical florist – at least, the self-described "older guy with a white beard" doesn't think so – but Wade is deep in the dirt building his floristry business, The Hidden Flower Farm, which he launched late last year.
"Gardening was something that really resonated with me," he says, describing it as "meditative". "Just the peace that came with it, was really quite special. It's finding that mindset for yourself, to work through things, or not – to just be in the moment."
Turning to floristry has been one hell of a tree change for the former Australian Defence Force Officer, whose Army career was cut short following a debilitating injury he sustained during a combat exercise in 2019. Before the Army, Wade was drafted to play AFL for the North Melbourne Kangaroos at the end of high school in 1996, but he was only on their list for a couple of years.
Read more at SA Life