FLOWER EXTRAVAGANZA
The flowers from two weddings at the Biltmore Estate were both creations of Stacey at the Bloom Room. 
Totally spectacular! Just look at the photos of some of the flowers in the truck. I picked up from a wedding at the Conservatory on Saturday morning, but kept most of those for Sunday morning, to be added to another wedding from Deerpark. Two huge buckets of flowers from Saturday made their way to Brooks-Howell and they were stunned by the beauty of them - I love doing that! I walk in with buckets full of beautiful flowers, get lots of kudos for it when all I did was go pick them up and drive them over. This is a job you gotta love!
Flowers from both weddings, and more even from The Fresh Market, were distributed to Care Partners Rehab Hospital (shown here), as well as the Solace Center, McCune Assisted Living Center and The Laurels of Summit Ridge. At Rehab we had a Hands On Asheville project and Clare and Leslie showed up to help. Clare and I did the pick up and managed to get them all in the pickup. And you can see some of the arrangements on the cart as Leslie wheels them around to the rooms at Rehab. They give the patients and the staff a real boost. To see more photos and to find out who are new hairy volunteer is, click here.
THE BEST DOGGONE VOLUNTEERS!
Here’s a great photo of Jackie and Rich driving our newest volunteer Brewster who’s in the back seat looking very proud of the four buckets of flowers he just picked up from The Fresh Market. A little hard to see the flowers, but they weren’t as important to document as his photo is. When I talked to Louise at Fresh Market the next day, she told me she’d met Brewster, 
that he’d strolled in like he owned the place.
But we had two other volunteers 
with us today as well, Clare and Leslie. Clare’s volunteered several times but this was Leslie’s first. She found us through Hands On Asheville and knew Clare, who headed up the Sunday morning project for Second Bloom. She claimed she had no talent, but she made some beautiful arrangements. Check out the pretty vase of roses and greens, flowers that Brewster had collected. And find out more about our Sunday morning.
HAPPY TO SEE SECOND BLOOM
This is one of the best receptions ever! Don’t they look happy to have all these beautiful flowers the The Fresh Market. This is a photo of Lois and Lenore at The Laurels of Summit Ridge. The residents had a great time arranging them. They sent a thank you note that many of the residents wrote in. And Lois said, ‘How glorious! The residents lit up as bright as the flowers.’
HENDERSONVILLE HIGHLIGHT
Susie McIlvaine has become Second Bloom’s first volunteer to bring flowers from The Fresh Market to two different facilities in Hendersonville. She’ll be delivering flowers on Thursdays to both Sunnybrook and Carillon Assisted Living Centers. So from now on the flowers we pick up in Hendersonville will stay in Hendersonville. The residents have a real treat in store for them. Not only are the flowers bright and full of life, but so is Susie. She’s got energy enough for all of us! Happy to have her on board!
ROSY VOLUNTEERS
So here they are, at least a few of them. Clare’s taking the picture, so you can’t see her happy face.
Clare, Ellen and Loretta led up the Second Bloom Volunteer Squad for the Rhododendron Brigade’s donation of 100 dozen roses from their ball the night before. Wow! Many people enjoyed these flowers for days to come. Find out where they went on this bright Sunday morning.
ROSES FOR ALL
It was a rose colored Sunday morning as Second Bloom volunteers, one of whom I’ve never met, picked up over 100 dozen roses donated by the Rhododendron Brigade. They transferred the flowers to buckets 
and went off in several different directions: To the McCune Center, Deerfield and Courtyard.
I was out of town but heard from every facility about how gorgeous the roses were. What a generous donation that spread joy to literally hundreds of residents and their families.
COLORFUL AND ABUNDANT
Wedding flowers from The Bloom Room brought joy to many people today. The flowers were so colorful, the hydrangeas so huge! Liberty Oaks got many of the colorful flowers to brighten their space. You can see the arrangements that Carolyn and Jean made. 
Those gals can sure put a lot of flowers in a vase. They take them to their rooms to enjoy for the week.
The hydrangeas, roses, and other long stemmed flowers were given to Golden Living Center on Beaverdam Road in Asheville. One wedding that provided beauty and enjoyment to over 100 residents!
FLOWERS A PLENTY
I received a call Saturday afternoon from Asheville Event Company about a wedding they were having at the Inn On Biltmore. Becca said there would be plenty of flowers left fo
r Second Bloom. And she wasn’t kidding. The room was full of arrangements and within a short time everything was loaded in the truck, filling the inside and out.
Sunday morning proved to be a delight for five facilities! Flowers went to Deerfield, McCune, 
Shadybrook, Golden Living and Highland Farms. Above on the right is a photo of the flowers with Loretta and one of her trusty BLT volunteers. They took in 4 of the large arrangements and rearranged them into small bouquets for the entire assisted living section of Deerfield Retirement Community.
On the left is a picture of Rose at Highland Farms making some beautiful arrangements for the tables and nurses’ stations. All these flowers were from Clements and they were spectacular!
WEDDING WONDER
Beautiful flowers from a wedding at the Biltmore Estate provided a lot of joy for Rose at Highland Farms Retirement Community. The flowers were
the creative endeavor of The Bloom Room and Clements. These flowers also found their way to Care Partners Rehab Hospital the next day.
But today it was Rose and me, sitting out on the patio of Limbert Hall, making beautiful arrangements for all the residents and staff to enjoy. It was a beautiful morning and great to visit with Rose.
FESTIVE FLOWERS
We had a great variety of flowers to work with today. Two weddings from The Bloom Room, flowers from Your Vase or Mine and from The Fresh Market provided us with color, beauty and interest. We couldn’t name all the flowers but it didn’t slow any of us down. I mostly took 
photos while the other five volunteers set about making over 60 arrangements for the patients and staff at Care Partners Rehab Hospital. Photo on the left shows everyone who helped, Sharon and her mother Jo, Cindy, Larissa and Elizabeth. The photo on the left shows them wheeling their cart down the hall, having already handed out many arrangements.
Hands On Asheville provided all the organization of volunteers for our Second Bloom project today. It’s great to see who shows up to help out, what drew them to volunteer and how they like the experience. I always consider it a good indication when volunteers want to return! Check out some more photos.
HANDS ON HELP
There were 8 of us at Care Partners Rehab Hospital today. Two volunteers brought flowers. Susan, pictured on the left with Nancy, brought flowers from Fresh Market in Hendersonville. Look closely at what she’s carrying in her hand - it’s a bloomin’ artichoke with an incredible purple flowering center! We picked that up from a wedding the day before, flowers from The Bloom Room were spectacular. We also arrived to find a bucket of flowers from the garden of Judy Garry, Your Vase or Mine, that was dropped off by a volunteer.
Four volunteers from Hands On Asheville and one volunteer who flew in all the way from Connecticut. The photo above is of Larissa, Jo and Sharon. Sharon was the project 
manager for the day from Hands On Asheville. To the right is a photo of Elizabeth working with the really cool weeping red flowering wierdness. She was quite taken with it. On the left is Cindy, visiting from Connecticut. She’s been working hard this week, hauling buckets of flowers from the Biltmore, Fresh Market, wherever she was needed.
CITY MARKET
Here’s a great photo of Jackie selling raffle tickets at City Market to our friend Abby, who we haven’t seen in quite some time. It was a beautiful Saturday and Second Bloom was there for the whole show. Lots of people supporting our efforts and many hearing about us for the first time. I finally met Sarah Catoe, the director of Hands On Asheville. They are an organization that helps run volunteeer projects for businesses. Perfect for Second Bloom. It’s been quite a relief to have their help. I also met several people that work at The Solace Center and also at the Laurels of GreenTree Ridge.
A NOD FROM A PRO
Today some beautiful roses from Fresh Market found their way to the Solace Center. It was a mild day outside and Joan, a patient, was out for some fresh air. She rested and watched as Jackie, Richard and I made small arrangements for the patients and staff. Joan used to be an interior designer and she loved to work with flowers, winning awards for her work.
It was a sweet visit with Joan, chatting about her life. She was ‘itching to help out’ but not quite able to. At one point she told me I was doing a great job. I loved that she said that because it was so real. And in that moment she was so thoroughly enjoying seeing all the flowers that even mine looked beautiful to her!
EVERYTHING’S COMING UP ROSES
This was a day of roses for Second Bloom. I think there were about 14 buckets full of them, all from Fresh Market, in Hendersonville and Asheville. So they were spread all around town: to Aston Park, Golden Living, Solace Center and Courtyard. And we’ve got two more buckets left for tomorrow’s trip to Liberty Oaks.
We had two new volunteers helping out this week at Courtyard. Here’s a great photo of Teresa with Ramona and one of Brooke with Charlie. At first they got 
instruction to spread out the flowers and then as it became clear we had lots of flowers, they got further instruction to stuff those cups. They seemed flexible and able to flow with everything. And they want to come back - I’ve never met a volunteer that hasn’t wanted to come back!
With two carts full of flowers we headed to the rooms to hand out flowers. It had been a while since I’d done this and it was good to visit with the residents. We stopped in for a visit with John, pictured here with Brooke. John loves the flowers and especially the visits that go with them.
GOOGLE-ING THEIR WAY TO SECOND BLOOM
This was a first for me. I asked how Teresa (on the left) and Brooke (on the right)found out about Second Bloom. Turns out they googled Asheville + volunteers. And up we sprouted. I was very glad they chose to help out at Courtyard today because we had a mega amount of roses from The Fresh Market, both in Asheville and Hendersonville. I found out that 12 buckets, big 5 gallon buckets, can actually fit in the cab of a truck. Dodging raindrops all day we managed to get 6 of those buckets into Courtyard.
PAUL CHARTS NEW TERRITORY FOR SHADYBROOK
Paul became the first man at Shadybrook to join in the flower arranging! And he had some definite talent. Sarah, Betty and Violet also helped. We had flowers from a wedding at Homewood and they were created by Shady Grove Florist. They were so colorful and unusual! We also received flowers from a wedding at Lake Eden, put together by the Bloom Room. Here we had a lot of gorgeous orchids to work with. The colors were great! There were so many flowers that the residents had never seen before. They all wanted the names of them, but I wasn’t much help.
It was very touching to have Paul helping out. He doesn’t speak clearly, but he was definitely able to communicate his enjoyment. After we had a cart full of flowers we all went around to hand out the arrangements to each of the residents’ rooms. Paul took charge of wielding the cart down the halls and everyone helped hand them out.
BAPTIST RETIREMENT HOME
Early Sunday morning we found ourselves in a bit of hydrangea heaven. Flowers from a wedding the night before at Deerpark in the Biltmore Estate were donated to Second Bloom. The Bloom Room provided the gorgeous arrangements.
You can see Clare trying to figure out exactly how we’re going to extract 
the rest of the hydrangeas from their container. These flowers went to Baptist Retirement Home, as requested by the bride’s family. The activity director, Millie Brown, was set to gather any of the residents together who wanted to make some bouquets. She said she would have no shortage of help!