One Garden Essences have three gardens of flower essences with another garden being gathered. One Garden Divine Botanical Essences (88 essences), Deepening Essences (28 essences) and For The Love of Children Essences (44 essences). 

One Garden Essences are botanical flower essences created from flowers, plants and other elements of nature. They are designed to act as catalysts for awareness, learning and change, inviting you to explore the feelings, beliefs and patterns that may be influencing your life.

Rather than giving you something you lack or doing the healing for you, an essence can help bring attention to what may be standing between you and the expression of your own capacities for love, truth, courage, compassion and growth.

Each essence carries a particular theme or invitation, inspired by the botanical, its environment, the circumstances of its creation and the understanding that has unfolded through working with it.

One Garden Essences honour free will and self-responsibility. The essence may offer a key, but you remain the person who chooses whether to unlock the door, explore what is revealed and make changes in your life, to become your own hero.

At their heart, One Garden Essences are an invitation to become more curious about yourself — to reveal, feel, understand, learn, choose and change — and to discover more of the unique soul you were created to be.

One Garden Essences are based on the flower essence understanding that the energetic qualities of a botanical can be captured in water without extracting therapeutic quantities of its physical or chemical constituents. They are therefore very different from herbal extracts and essential oils.

Exactly how flower essences exert their effects is not scientifically established. Our understanding stands within a much longer history of people observing and exploring the subtle qualities of flowers, plants, water and the natural world. Across centuries, pioneers have contributed their observations and discoveries, with modern flower essence practice eventually developing into the systems we recognise today. One Garden honours those who explored before us and the foundations their work provided.

One Garden’s own understanding has continued to evolve through more than two decades of creating, observing, personally working with and sharing the essences, together with the experiences of those who use them. Rather than claiming to have all the answers, we remain curious about what these accumulated observations and experiences may teach us.

Energy itself is not necessarily something we see directly, yet we constantly experience energy through its effects. We may not see the wind, but we feel it against our skin and see the movement it creates. We may not see heat radiating from a fire, but we certainly feel its warmth.

In the same way, our approach to flower essences is grounded in observation and experience. We pay attention to what can be felt, noticed and discovered, while remaining open about what we do not yet fully understand.

An important principle that has accompanied Christine throughout her work is:

“The measure of truth is effectiveness.”

Rather than asking you simply to believe that an essence works, One Garden encourages you to observe your own experience. Does something become clearer? Does a pattern reveal itself? Do you begin to understand yourself or your reactions differently? Does what you discover help you make a more loving or truthful choice?

Experience does not answer every scientific question about how flower essences work, but it gives us something meaningful to observe, question and continue investigating.

Each essence has a particular theme or focus. When you are drawn to an essence, working with it may help bring your attention to feelings, beliefs, memories or repetitive patterns connected with that theme — including things you may not previously have recognised or understood.

This is why working with an essence is an active process rather than a passive treatment.

Sometimes you may experience greater clarity or a gentle shift in perspective. At other times, something uncomfortable may come into your awareness. One Garden does not regard discomfort as something that must always be immediately removed or suppressed. It can be an invitation to become curious:

What am I feeling? Why might I be feeling this? What is this experience showing me? Is there something here for me to understand, learn or change?

The essence does not feel your emotions or make your choices for you. You remain an active participant in your own journey. Your willingness to feel, question, seek truth, learn and make different choices is an important part of the process. This is why free will and loving self-responsibility are central to One Garden.

We think of the essence as a key. It may help bring a door into awareness, but you decide whether to unlock it, explore what lies behind it and take the next step.

One Garden Essences offer gentle support for greater awareness, grounding and positive change. Working with an essence is a partnership — the essence participates in the process while always respecting your free will.

When you are experiencing worry, sadness, fear, conflict, repeating patterns or simply feeling stuck, an essence may help you feel more grounded and open to understanding what is happening beneath the surface. You may notice greater clarity, become aware of a feeling or belief, or find it easier to access qualities such as courage, trust, compassion, faith and truthfulness.

These qualities are not something the essence gives you. They are capacities already within you. The essence can support and strengthen their expression, while you remain the person who feels, learns, chooses and takes action.

Sometimes that action is very practical — having a difficult conversation, establishing a boundary, asking for help, making amends, changing direction or simply taking the next step that is available to you.

Partners in care

One Garden Essences can also be beautiful companions alongside other forms of care and personal development, including counselling and psychotherapy, somatic practices, massage and bodywork, breathwork, sound therapy, acupuncture, chiropractic care and creative therapies.

From Christine’s years of using essences in her massage and Reiki practice, she observed that clients often relaxed more readily and became more receptive to the care being offered when essences were included.

This can be particularly valuable during difficult times. Needing professional support does not necessarily mean leaving your essence behind. The essence can accompany your personal and emotional process while an appropriately qualified professional provides the specialised care you need.

If you take prescribed medication, do not stop or change it.

One Garden Essences are catalysts for change and partners in the process — gently supporting you while respecting that your life, your choices and your journey remain your own.

Every botanical on the earth has a unique and individual energy, character and healing quality. This energy is not visible to the naked eye but can be felt.

Creating a One Garden Essence is a sacred, spiritual and gentle process that works with the living botanical and its environment.

The process begins with what we call Gestation. A bowl of purified water is placed beside the flowering botanical. A botanical matter is added to the water and left to “gestate” for a varying period.

The beautiful Prayer for Divine Love is placed beneath the bowl, where it remains throughout Gestation. Prayer has been an important part of the creation of One Garden Essences and reflects Christine’s desire that God’s Love and Truth, rather than personal will or a desired outcome, remain at the heart of the process.

One Garden understands this period of gestation as an opportunity for the water to receive the spiritual energetic qualities and gifts of the botanical and its environment.

During this period, observations can become important pieces of the essence’s unfolding story. Colour, form, number of petals, growth patterns, location, timing and even unexpected circumstances surrounding its creation may later contribute to understanding the theme and purpose of the essence.

Then comes Birth.

The flower water is strained into a bottle containing brandy, creating the original Mother Tincture. The time, date and location of its birth are recorded.

The relationship with the Prayer does not end when the essence is made. The Mother Tincture continues to be stored with the Prayer for Divine Love, reflecting the same intention of love and truth with which it was created.

From this original Mother Tincture, only eight drops are needed to prepare a Source Essence. Eight drops of that Source Essence can then create a Personal Essence.

This means that a single encounter with a botanical can ultimately be shared with many people while requiring very little from the living plant. This beautifully follows God’s guiding spiritual principles and laws of economics and permanence.

For One Garden, this reflects something beautiful within nature: abundance through economy rather than depletion.

Each essence therefore begins as much more than the manufacture of a product. It begins as an encounter with a living botanical, in a particular place, at a particular moment — approached with observation, curiosity, respect and prayer.

The flower is observed. The water receives. The Prayer accompanies. And the story continues to unfold.

Choosing an essence doesn’t need to be complicated. There is no “wrong” essence — different choices may simply open different doors for exploration.

Begin by noticing what draws your attention.

You might feel attracted to a botanical photograph, an essence name, a keyword or a particular description. Sometimes an essence immediately feels relevant to what you are experiencing. At other times, you may be drawn to something without consciously knowing why.

You can also begin with what is happening in your life and ask yourself:

What am I feeling? What keeps repeating? What am I struggling with? What would I like to understand? Is there something I have been avoiding, longing for or wanting to change?

Then explore the essences with curiosity rather than trying to find the “perfect” answer.

You may choose through:

• Intuition — noticing which essence naturally attracts your attention.
• Names, keywords and botanical images — noticing your response and allowing it to guide further exploration.
• Essence descriptions — considering the questions, loving qualities and patterns associated with each essence.
• A particular life theme — choosing a Single Essence or Blend connected with something you genuinely want to understand, explore or change.

Sometimes you may even notice resistance to an essence. Resistance doesn’t automatically mean it is not the right essence for you, but it can be interesting to become curious:

What is it about this theme that I don’t want to look at?

If you’re having difficulty choosing

With so many One Garden Essences to explore, you may not know where to begin. If you are experiencing something complex or would simply appreciate some guidance, you are welcome to book a personal consultation with Christine.

A consultation can be either face to face or online. It is an opportunity to explore what is happening in your life, what you are feeling, patterns you may be noticing and what you would genuinely like to understand or change.

As part of this process, Christine may use the One Garden Soul Cards, featuring the botanical imagery of the essences, as another way of exploring what naturally draws your attention and what may be asking to be investigated more deeply.

Together, you can then explore which Single Essence, Blend or combination of essences may be most relevant to your journey.

A consultation is not about someone else deciding what is “wrong” with you or taking your choices away. It is a collaborative exploration — offering questions, possibilities and guidance while encouraging you to listen more deeply to yourself.

Most importantly, trust and develop your own discernment.

A consultation can offer another perspective, but you remain at the centre of the process. One Garden encourages you to develop your own awareness, intuition, questioning and capacity to choose.

And if an essence leads somewhere unexpected, it doesn’t necessarily mean you chose incorrectly. What comes into awareness may simply offer another opportunity to explore yourself more deeply.

Content

A Single Essence contains one individual One Garden Source Essence and allows you to explore its particular theme more deeply.

Each Single Essence has its own botanical, keyword, creation story and invitation. You might be drawn to an essence because its theme reflects something happening in your life, the essences specific name, its botanical catches your attention, or its description awakens a feeling or recognition within you.

Blend Essences

A Blend Essence brings several individual Source Essences together around a shared theme or purpose — rather like gathering different flowers to create a bunch of flowers with a particular focus.

Each essence contributes something different, allowing the theme to be supported and explored from several perspectives. A Blend can be particularly helpful when several interconnected feelings or patterns are involved.

An Easy Selection

A Blend also offers an easy way to choose when you know the area of life you would like support with but are unsure which individual essence to select. Rather than choosing between several Single Essences, you can simply choose the Blend that best reflects your current needs.

A Blend is not necessarily stronger or better than a Single Essence. Sometimes one essence is exactly what you need; at other times, a bunch of essences working together around a shared theme may be more supportive.

Whichever you choose, the purpose remains the same: the essences are catalysts for awareness and change, while you remain the active participant in the process.

A Single Essence is one flower with a particular story to explore.
A Blend Essence is a bunch of flowers gathered around a shared theme.

One Garden Essences can be used by people of all ages, including adults, older people, children and babies. They may also be used with animals and within the home or other environments.

Flower essences are very different from herbal extracts and essential oils. The One Garden process does not seek to extract therapeutic quantities of the botanical’s physical or chemical constituents. Instead, the essences are created according to the flower essence understanding of working with the energetic qualities of the living botanical.

In Christine’s experience of creating, personally using and sharing One Garden Essences for more than twenty years, they have been a gentle and non-intrusive form of support. Each person’s experience is individual, and One Garden sees the relationship between the person and the essence as a partnership that respects individuality and free will.

Sometimes working with an essence may coincide with feelings, memories or emotions becoming more noticeable. This is not necessarily something to fear or immediately suppress. Feelings can contain valuable information and, when approached with curiosity and care, may help us understand ourselves and what we are experiencing more deeply.

However, emotional distress should never simply be dismissed as “the essence working.” If feelings become overwhelming, persistent or difficult to navigate safely, seek appropriate professional support. Your essence can remain a gentle companion alongside the care you need.

If you’re unsure about choosing or using an essence for yourself, a child or an animal, please contact One Garden — we’re happy to help. Where medical, psychological or veterinary care is needed, your essence can be used as a companion to appropriate professional support rather than a replacement for it.

One Garden Essences are intended for emotional, personal and spiritual exploration and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent medical or psychological conditions.

Yes. More than one One Garden Essence can be part of your personal exploration.

You may also feel drawn to work with two separate preparations — for example, a Single Essence and a Blend Essence. In this situation, Christine generally recommends giving each its own space during the day, rather than taking everything together. You might take one essence in the morning and the other later in the day.

This can make it easier to remain aware of the different themes you are exploring and to observe what is arising for you.

There is no advantage in taking large numbers of essences simply because more are available. One Garden encourages curiosity and discernment rather than quantity.

Mostly, one essence offers plenty to explore.

The standard way to use a Personal Essence is 8 drops under the tongue, twice daily.

There are also many other ways to work with your essence. If you prefer not to take the drops directly, they can be added to water, juice, food or another suitable beverage. You may also add them to a bath or foot bath, massage oil or cream, or use them in a personal or environmental spray, mist or diffuser.

One Garden’s standard preparations are preserved with brandy. Diluting an essence in another liquid reduces the amount of alcohol taken at one time, but it does not make an alcohol-preserved essence alcohol-free. If you need to avoid alcohol completely, please contact us to discuss an appropriate option.

There is no single experience you should expect when working with an essence. Each person and each journey is unique. In Christine’s experience, there can be a remarkable intelligence and gentleness in the partnership between you and the essence — one that respects your individuality and free will rather than forcing a particular outcome.

Sometimes you may notice a feeling, memory, thought or repetitive pattern more clearly. You may experience a shift in perspective, recognise something about yourself or understand a situation differently. At other times, the experience may be subtle, with insights emerging gradually through the ordinary events and relationships of your life.

Occasionally, uncomfortable feelings may come into greater awareness. One Garden does not regard every uncomfortable emotion as something that needs to be immediately removed or suppressed. It may instead become a gateway — an opportunity to explore what you are feeling and discover the valuable information your emotions may hold.

Rather than automatically assuming that everything you experience has been caused by the essence, become curious:

What am I feeling? What triggered this? Have I felt this before? Is there a pattern here? What might this experience be showing me? Is there something I need to feel, understand, learn or change?

Journalling, quiet reflection and prayer can be valuable companions while working with an essence. Talking honestly with someone you trust or seeking appropriate professional support can also be important when something arises that feels difficult to navigate alone. Your essence can continue to be a supportive companion alongside professional care.

Most importantly, remember that the essence does not do the emotional work for you. It cannot feel your feelings, forgive someone, speak a truth, establish a boundary, make amends or make a different choice on your behalf.

That part belongs to you. The quality of your life is shaped by the choices you make.

There is also no need to continually search for evidence that your essence is “working.” Continue living your life. Observe what happens. Notice what you feel, what repeats, what changes and what you begin to understand.

One Garden Essences are catalysts for awareness, learning and change — partners in the process rather than substitutes for your own capacities. Your free will, willingness and participation remain central.

They are intended for emotional, personal and spiritual exploration and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent medical or psychological conditions, or to replace appropriate professional care.

There is no fixed length of time that you must work with a One Garden Essence. Each person, essence and experience is different.

From Christine’s experience, working with an essence over a longer period can be particularly valuable, because it allows time for experiences, feelings, patterns and new understandings to unfold. Some things may become apparent quite quickly, while deeper layers of learning may emerge gradually as life presents different situations in which to observe yourself.

Rather than asking only:

“How long do I need to take this essence?”

you might also ask:

What am I still discovering through this essence? Is this theme continuing to be relevant in my life? Is there more here that I want to feel, understand, explore or change?

There is no requirement to use an essence continuously. You may work with one for several days or weeks, put it aside for a while and feel drawn to return to it months or even years later.

Revisiting an essence at another stage of your life can sometimes bring an entirely different understanding because you are no longer the same person who first worked with it. New experiences and greater self-awareness may allow you to see another aspect of its theme that you were not ready or able to recognise before.

There is also no need to rush from one essence to another. Staying with a particular essence for longer can give you the opportunity to explore its theme more deeply rather than continually looking for the next thing to change how you feel.

Equally, taking a break does not mean you have failed to complete something. Your free will remains central. You can choose when to begin, when to pause and when you feel drawn to return. Trust your own senses.

One Garden Essences are not intended to create dependence upon a bottle. The purpose of working with an essence is ultimately to support greater awareness, learning, self-responsibility and your own capacity to make loving and truthful changes in your life.

So perhaps the most useful question is not simply:

“Have I finished the bottle?”

but:

“What am I learning about myself?”

No. Flower essences and essential oils are very different preparations.

Essential oils contain concentrated aromatic compounds physically extracted from plant material, commonly through methods such as distillation or expression.

One Garden Essences are not essential oils. They are created through the flower essence process using purified water and are subsequently preserved with brandy.

Essential oils are often recognised by their strong fragrance. Flower essences generally do not carry the fragrance of the botanical from which they were created.

Within One Garden, the essence is used as a tool for emotional, personal and spiritual exploration, rather than for the physical or aromatic properties of the plant.

The two approaches can also be used alongside one another.

The essences we create are derived from a diverse array of botanical sources found in Australian soil, with the exception of one essence that was created in Bali.

When we refer to “botanicals,” we encompass a broad spectrum of plant life. Our essences have been crafted not only from flowers but also from trees, seeds, ferns, moss, fungi, and even significant ceremonial moments like weddings where many flowers were present.

Our selection of botanicals is guided by a variety of factors. We embrace botanicals from tropical climates, arid regions, cottage gardens, flourishing “weeds,” vegetables, herbs, fruits, and even the gardens that grace our backyards.

We hold a deep appreciation for all the botanical species that are integral to our daily lives, as each possesses unique healing qualities that resonate with the challenges and experiences we encounter. Particularly noteworthy are botanicals that are often classified as “weeds.” These unassuming plants exhibit remarkable qualities that reflect the complexities of the challenges we face, and we hold them in high regard for their resilience and capacity to teach us important lessons.

In essence, our selection of botanical sources is a tribute to the diverse healing potential inherent in the plant kingdom, and our craft is driven by a reverence for the innate wisdom and vitality that these botanicals offer to enhance our lives.

No. You do not need to believe in God, follow a religion or share Christine’s spiritual understanding to use One Garden Essences.

Everyone is welcome in the garden.

God is, however, an important part of the One Garden story, and we don’t want to hide that.

Over many years of creating and working with the essences, Christine’s desire to understand God, love, truth, the human soul and our purpose has profoundly influenced the development of One Garden. Prayer has been part of the creation process, including the Prayer for Divine Love, which accompanies the making and keeping of the Mother Tinctures.

One Garden has also been greatly influenced by teachings that encouraged Christine to question and explore the relationship between God’s Love, God’s Laws, free will, self-responsibility and the development of the human soul. These ideas have helped shape the understanding that the essences should never take away a person’s responsibility or become substitutes for their own capacity to feel, learn, discern, choose and change.

But One Garden does not ask you to accept these beliefs as a condition of using an essence.

You are encouraged to question, investigate and discover for yourself.

If the word God feels difficult, confronting or unfamiliar, you don’t have to pretend otherwise. Your experiences with religion, family, authority or life itself may have shaped very different feelings and beliefs about God. Even those feelings can be approached with curiosity rather than judgement.

For Christine, God is not about belonging to a religion or surrendering your discernment to an institution. Her relationship with God began with her experiences in nature as a curious questioning child and has become a deeply personal journey of seeking love and truth — one that continues to evolve.

One Garden therefore doesn’t ask you to believe what Christine believes.

It invites you to look, feel, question, seek truth and exercise your own free will.

Perhaps you believe in God.

Perhaps you don’t.

Perhaps you’re unsure.

Perhaps you’re angry with God.

Perhaps you’ve never really considered the question.

There is room for you in One Garden.

Different flowers. Different journeys. One Garden.

One Garden Essences are catalysts for change, not substitutes for change.

They do not do your healing for you, override your free will or remove your responsibility for the choices you make. An essence cannot feel an emotion, resolve a conflict, forgive someone, speak a truth, establish a boundary, make amends, leave an unhealthy situation or make a loving choice on your behalf.

They are also not intended simply to make uncomfortable feelings disappear.

Sometimes sadness, fear, anger, grief or other difficult emotions contain important information about what you have experienced and what may still need your attention. Rather than immediately suppressing these feelings, One Garden encourages you to become curious about what lies beneath them.

An essence does not give you qualities that you lack. One Garden recognises that human beings have remarkable capacities to love, feel, learn, discern, create and change. The invitation is to explore what may be obstructing the development or expression of those capacities.

One Garden Essences do not diagnose or treat medical or psychological conditions and should not replace appropriate medical, psychological, veterinary or other professional care.

They also do not promise instant transformation. Change may involve awareness, feeling, learning, experimentation, different choices and sometimes considerable courage and perseverance.

Most importantly, One Garden Essences are not intended to create dependence upon a bottle, practitioner or system.

Their purpose is ultimately to point you back towards yourself — your feelings, your truth, your free will, your relationship with love and God, and your own capacity to learn and grow.

The essence may offer a key.

It cannot walk through the door for you.