Like all true creative spirits, Madeleine loves her work. From a very young age, she gained a reputation amongst members of her community for her stunning floral arrangements. She was soon much in demand for weddings and funerals, and her designs added greatly to the joy of unions, as well as setting a suitable tone for farewells.
Aware that many of her neighbours were not wealthy, Madeleine refused to accept payment for her services. Her passion for flowers and her desire to help people was reward enough.
As a florist, Madeleine has an incredible array of blooms to work with. Her clear favourites, however, are sunflowers which she loves for their bold colours and cheerfulness. She also loves proteas, which are native to the Western Cape, and many of her arrangements feature Lisianthus, which was always her mother’s favourite bloom. These flowers also work well together – they almost arrange themselves.

To this day, whenever she visits La Residence, Liz makes a special point of complimenting Madeleine on the day’s arrangements.
Liz is not the only visitor to La Residence to have been impressed by Madeleine’s handiwork. Madeleine now offers flower arranging lessons on request, where she shares secrets like the importance of starting with a ‘full house’ of greenery before adding the flowers. In this way, a story of passion and proteas that began in South Africa is now making its way around the world, one flower-filled home at a time.
Be sure to look out for Madeleine’s arrangements – on display throughout La Residence in an eclectic selection of containers, each hand-picked by Liz to complement the floral artistry of her protégé. And of course, Madeleine is always happy to share her secrets for achieving your own remarkable results at home.