Sharing Flowers

It’s the season of bounty in the garden.  I’ve got more flowers coming on in the garden than I can use.  I’ve been harvesting for days, and used lots of my goodies in this weekend’s weddings.  But there are so many blooms left, and a whole new round of cuts from this morning.  In the past, I’ve taken leftover wedding centerpieces to the assisted living/retirement home, but today I decided that it was time for them to get a load of fresh cut goodies instead.

Needless to say, they were pleased to receive them!  After transferring the blooms to a bunch of temporary vases, these staffers were headed to go gather up a group of residents to come down and have some fun arranging flowers for their rooms and the common areas.  It feels really good to know I helped bring some joy and beauty to people today.

Back when I maintained gardens, several of my clients were older women who had wonderful gardens, but who had become unable to care for them as they would like to.  I was really honored that they trusted me to take care of their plants.  It is a very intimate relationship a gardener has with her garden, one not just anyone can step into.  I’m hoping that there will be some old gardeners in the group that gets invited to play with the flowers I brought.  I was thinking of how disconnected from nature one must get in an assisted living center, and how much I will miss plants and flowers when I get too old to bend and plant and pick.  So I’m hoping that today I paid it forward, and hopefully gave some flower and plant lovers the chance to reconnect with their old passions.

I’ll be sharing flowers again soon!

And full disclosure:  I grew most of those blooms, but there are a few goodies from other local farmers that were left from the weddings I did this weekend. I’m sure they would be pleased that the extras got enjoyed, instead of just composted!  I bet they would feel the same way I do!