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.

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.

WEDDING FLOWERS SPREAD JOY

The flowers from a beautiful wedding in Morganton on Saturday night became the joy and afternoon pleasure of over 500 residents at 6 different facilities in Asheville and Black Mountain.  With plenty of help the work went quickly.  We knew it had been a bit wet because the ground was quite soft…..then we heard tales of wild weather….rain, hail and lots of wind.  But today was sunny and warm.  We loaded up a van and the back of the truck, inside and out, and headed off for a bit of shade to take a short break.

Then it was up the mountain with the truck going one direction, the van another and by early afternoon everyone had their flowers.  One of the facilities called me later to say how much they all appreciated them, but it was especially sweet for 3 residents that had just returned from the hospital.  And then of course with it being Mother’s Day, everyone was especially happy.

Flowers went to Mountain Ridge Wellness Center, Golden Living Center, The McCune Center, The Swannanoa Christian Ministry, Courtyard Rehabilitation and Nursing Center and Deerfield.  Over 500 residents were touched by the flowers this one bride donated to Second Bloom - quite remarkable!

JUST BEFORE IT RAINED

Courtyard had tables outisde in yes, their courtyard.  There was more construction going on in the activity room so this seemed like a good option.  We watched the sky darken and then brighten as the rain held off until the afternoon.  With buckets of beautiful flowers from The Fresh Market, the cart got quickly filled up with arrangements for all the rooms.

Second Bloom’s been coming to Courtyard since last October, beginning during our wedding season.  We used to work with just Nanette and Vernelle and sometimes we overwhelmed all of us with the quantity of flowers.  But the color and variety were always spectacular!  Now Nanette and Vernelle are among about 8-10 residents that help out on a regular basis.  It’s been a great transformation over the months.  Kim, the activity director, pictured on the right, know just who might want to join in.

ALMOST SPRING

What a great way to usher in spring.  Beautiful flowers from Fresh Market, happy residents, lovely bouquets and fabulous volunteers.   I’ve been bringing flowers to Jerry for several months. He loves them and always makes the effort to connect and thank me for them.  He’s really quite something.

FLOWERS ABOUND AT COURTYARD

The aroma coming from the activity room at Courtyard was intoxicating.  But today it was not the flowers that were smelling so delicious, it was the chocolate chip cookies being baked.  They were having a bake sale for Second Bloom!  Definitely our first.  And so incredibly supportive and appreciated.  So we spent our time making beautiful arrangements with flowers from Fresh Market while we were eating….

Today Sally and Susan volunteered with us.  I was so intoxicated that I forgot to take many photos.  Check out a few more here.  But on the upper right is a photo of Octavia, who put together some fabulous arrangements.  Susan really enjoyed going to the rooms, bringing the beauty of the flowers to each resident  On the upper left she’s with Adrienne.  This is the third facility that we’ve seen Adrienne in - who’s following whom?

A MISSED PHOTO OP

We arrived at Courtyard with 6 buckets of beautiful flowers from The Fresh Market and no camera……But that’s not stopping me from finding other photos from past times at Courtyard.  If we’d taken a photo today it would have looked similar to the one on the left, but with different people helping out.  Although, Linda, our volunteer of the day, is in this older photo on the left standing and making an arrangement.  And on that same day, not today, Linda’s also in the photo on the right with Michael.  And it is true that Michael came in today to pick out an arrangement for his physical therapist.  He was sure it would make her day!  If I’d taken a photo of Linda and Michael, it might have looked something like the one I took….so the pictures, while being a bit dated, are not too far off the mark.

A DAY IN THE LIFE

Yes, a day in the life of Second Bloom.  We had four volunteers lined up, ready to snip and cut and arrange and deliver.  But we didn’t have enough flowers for them.  So we canceled.  And then a surprise call from St. Eugene Catholic Church.  They had flowers for us.  So then we needed our volunteers….. But most of them had scattered and so we were only able to snag one of them.  But if you have to have one volunteer, you couldn’t ask for a better one than Emily.  She walked in, found a chair and started prepping the flowers for everyone.

We brought flowers from Fresh Market and St. Eugenes to Courtyard Rehabilitation and Nursing Center.  There were two tables filled with residents ready to help us - barely enough room for us to maneuver around.  But we managed without too much chaos.  Lula and Ralph were two of our new participants and they were quite good.  Check out Ralph’s bouquet and look at all that Lula made!

Now, if you’re someone who checks up on us each time we come to Courtyard, you might think we’ve been a bit remiss not including two of our favorite resident experts, Vernelle and Nanette.  Yes, they help us each time we come.  We’ve not included a lot of photos lately because for the first several months we bloomed at Courtyard, they were our only stars.  Scroll down through the pages and you’ll see many, many photos of these two dear ladies.  We definitely consider them the heart of our Courtyard blooming, with their beautiful arrangements and their obvious delight in working with the flowers.

BLOOMING ACTIVITY GALORE

Yes, we had a lot of flowers and a lot of blooming activity.  Three volunteers helped the morning move right along.  Pat, Peggy and Melinda joined Second Bloom today at Courtyard.  Peggy’s here on the left.  Pauline, a resident at Courtyard, was ready to go before we arrived, waiting almost patiently.  She made bouquet upon bouquet and was pretty spent by the time we wheeled our carts down the halls.  But she had a fabulous time!

At first I wasn’t sure we’d have enough flowers, so we were doing ‘light and airy’ arrangements, but the last 25 cups were stuffed to the gills.  I only heard delight as we delivered the arrangements to the residents.  True, most people had gone to lunch, but I knew they would be delighted when they returned to their rooms and saw the bright bouquets.  We did find Octavia getting ready to go to lunch and got a great photo of her with Melinda and Pat.  We  had so many flowers that we made arrangements for the main dining hall and for a lot of the staff as well.  Where did all these flowers come from?

Well, we got great donations of flowers from Clements Flower Shop and from The Fresh Market.  Beautiful post Valentine’s Day flowers.  There were deep reds, pinks, whites and yellows.  Absolutely beautiful.  When you work with such fabulous flowers, your arrangements will always look beautiful.  Not that we don’t have talent…..because we do……….but the flowers definitely help.  It can be a bit daunting to look at 6 big buckets of flowers for the first time, wondering how we’re going to get from that to 120 bouquets in small, rather tiny cups.  But it always seems to work out.  And once we get going, everyone joins in.  Even I’ve learned a thing or two.

Recognize who that is behind the flowers?  Recognize the nice fingernail polish?  And don’t stop now - see more photos of our volunteers.

CREATIVITY ABOUNDS AT COURTYARD

We had a great blooming day at Courtyard with three fabulous volunteers:  Melinda, Sally and Emily.   Melinda is our newest volunteer and she stepped right in helping us cut and arrange over 120 bouquets for the residents and staff.  We once again had gorgeous flowers from Fresh Market to work with.

This week we had two residents help us for the first time.  Margie, pictured on the far right, was delighted with her arrangements.  She doesn’t speak but she wrote on a pad, ‘Thank you. I really enjoy the flowers.’  And she’s not the only one.  Pauline, photo above, also likes flowers and she got very engaged - mading a lot of beautiful arrangements - it seems like she might have received some training from the ladies at The McCune Center.

The flowers were appreciated by everyone. Here’s a photo of Melinda with Harold.  Harold loves the flowers and changes the water to keep them fresh.  Here’s another photo of Melinda with Lucy.  We tried to get some photos of Emily, who was also delivering flowers to the residents, but what can we say - when you’re the new volunteer, you get featured.  But to see a few more photos of our volunteers, click here.

THROUGH WIND AND SNOW………

Well, more like through the forecast of wind and snow, Second Bloom trudged forward with buckets of flowers from Fresh Market and Earth Fare.  I brought back several buckets full of gorgeous lilies - deep purples and bright yellows.  They were a big hit, as you can see by the bouquet that Vernelle has made.

We showed up at Courtyard to a table full of residents waiting to arrange flowers.  Above is a photo of Vernelle and Ramona on the left and Pauline, Darlene and Marie on the right.  And here’s a good photo of Vernelle with one of her many colorful arrangements.  Nice nails!

Rebecca, Sally and Emily, our three volunteers, hardly had any time to make a bouquet of their own.  They spent most of their time trying to keep the flowers coming and the cups full of water.  But of course they did it!  Second Bloom is totally loving having volunteers.  And we don’t go home nearly as tired as we used to…..

115 cups were filled with beautiful flowers in about an hour!  From there Rebecca and Emily took all these colorful arrangements to everyoone’s room.  Here’s a photo of Emily, in pink, with Joyce.  And on the far right is a photo of Rebecca and Lulu.  Beautiful faces to match the flowers!

BOOTS RIDES AGAIN!

I asked Boots, owner of Black Mountain Floral Center, when I was going to get a photo of her and she said ‘Never’.  So you’ll have to stop in to see her if you want to know.  Boots once again got several buckets of flowers for Second Bloom from the wholesale delivery truck that dropped her flowers off at her store.She simply asked if he had some he’d be throwing out - voila!  We were in luck.  We combined those flowers with some from Fresh Market and off we went to Courtyard Rehabilitation and Nursing Center.  We had a lot of folks helping us.  We had Vernelle, Buddy, Kim (Activity Director), Lisa (Second Bloom), Charles, Jean (Activities Dept) and Nanette.  We had our work cut out for us because there are 105 residents at Courtyard!  But with all that help the work went quickly and before you know it, I was able to bring a beautiful arrangement to Laura.  And Charles left the ‘bloomin’ activity looking quite dapper with that yellow rose in his lapel.

STRETCHING FLOWERS

We didn’t have abundant flowers but we sure knew how to stretch them out and make enough for everyone at Courtyard Rehabilitation and Nursing Center (formerly Magnolia).  Magnolia got a new name this week and it’s coming with a lot of renovation.  The front entryway is now bright with light from the outdoors coming in.  And the activity room, which had a new kitchen installed last month,  is due for more shelving in the next few weeks.  It’s definitely looking very spiffy.

Today our resident ‘Bloomers’ were Marie and Nanette.  Teri, their activity director, also  chipped in.  Above is a photo of Marie, a first time Bloomer.  We picked up flowers from Fresh Market and we were also given a truckload of vases from Blossoms at Biltmore Park.  Among them were some very small bud cups, votive candle size.  Perfect for one rose and a little greenery.  Very sweet and it made the flowers go all the way around the courtyard.  The residents love the simplicity of a single rose as much as they love a cup stuffed full of flowers.

AN EIGHT BUCKET HOME!

I usually don’t characterize the size of a facility by the number of buckets of flowers we go through.  But this was truly amazing.  We had flowers galore, stuffed to overflowing, all from Fresh Market in Asheville.  Sure we’d be going to at least two facilities we just brought 4 buckets in.  But I kept coming out for another one, and then another one…..until we’d made 105 bouquets!  Fortunately we had help.  That is a huge, eight bucket home!  But we had a great time stuffing the cups full of flowers - roses, spider mums, carnations, delphiniums, coffee berries and baby’s breath to name just a few.  And they were greatly appreciated by the residents.  Above is a photo of Danny and Lisa and to the left is one of Nancy and Robert.  It’s quite something to hand these flowers out and see people light up when you bring them in.  Some get great big smiles on their faces, like Danny and Robert.  But with some, you just see it in their eyes and in the few moments of connection, of exchange.  They brighten as you give them this simple gift of flowers.

FRIDAY’S FANTASTIC RIDE

It was a triple play today, in three separate innings. We started out with flowers from Boots at Black Mountain Floral Center and Earth Fare.  Yesterday Boots hijacked a truck full of flowers for us at the end of their run.  It was great!  Enough flowers for us to go to Magnolia Health Care Center first thing in the morning.  There were poinsettias everywhere at Magnolia so we made some large bouquets for their dining room tables, activity room and nursing stations.  You can see Nanette helping us out in the photo above.  We finally got to meet her son Mike and his wife as they came to take her out for the afternoon.  Then we were off to Fresh Market to see Louise and pick up some more flowers from her.  So who do we see in Fresh Market?  Check out the photo of Nanette, Mike and Louise.  Mike used to be the manager at Fresh Market so Mike and Louise already knew each other.  What a small world!  But we had to keep moving….we had flowers to deliver now to The Laurels of Green Tree Ridge.  Fortunately Marjorie was there to help us fill the 88 cups full of flowers and hand them out to the residents.  Marilyn, in the photo to the right, was one of the happy recipients.  She loves the baby’s breath so she chose an arrangement that had a lot of them.  Then off we went again - we don’t have ‘Flowers on the Move’ as our tag line for nothing.  We picked up 8 buckets of gorgeous flowers from the Biltmore House - look at those colors!  Nothing quite like it.  But what to do with them?  Well, we moved along to The McCune Center.  And although most of our help was out Christmas shopping, both Louise and Weezie were there to lend a hand.  We managed to spill several cups of water on the floor as we delivered out beautiful floral arrangements to the residents, but everyone was happy to get them and happy to help us mop up the place.  Three facilities in one day - a new record for us!  Something only to repeated with more volunteers…..

HAPPINESS IS CONTAGIOUS

I just read about a paper being published today in a British medical journal concluding that happiness may be contagious - and that people can pass on their happiness even to total strangers.  Isn’t it great when science tells us something that we already know?  They say the effect can last up to one year.  So just think of the effect Second Bloom is having on everyone we meet!  Not only are we bringing flowers, which in and of themselves promote well-being and smiles (Rutgers study of the emotional effect of flowers, more scientific confirmation if you need it ) but because we are genuinely happy, we are having a double effect on people!  Just look at the effect of our flowers on Rhonda, Wendall and Nanette.  They’re totally loving it.  In the photo to the right Wendall’s looking like he’s helping Nanette, but let me tell you - in the flower arena, Nanette needs no help.  She put together most of the 110 small floral arrangements for the residents at Magnolia all on her own.

Today we had a lot of flowers, from both Fresh Market and The Biltmore Estate.  With so many flowers we were able to go to two big facilities:  The Laurels of Green Tree Ridge and Magnolia Healthcare Center.  At The Laurels we arrived during lunch hour so we missed out on getting Marjorie to help us.  But we did get to visit with Marilyn who came in while we made the arrangements for the residents.  She likes to visit the bird that lives in the activity room and she loves flowers, always choosing a beautiful bouquet for her room. Marjorie came in as we were just finishing up.  That room exudes cheerfulness when we’re there.  The staff usually stops in and someone always talks about how important the flowers are for the residents.  I went into William’s room and he said, ‘It’s a blessing what you do for us with these flowers.  I love to look at them.’  Such a simple thing and yet such a rippling effect of, what I’ll call today, happiness.  So come and join us - get contagious!

BLOOMIN’ BUCKETS

I’ve bought flowers regularly from Fresh Market for years.  I’ve done that because they are incredibly fresh, last a long time and there is always an amazing variety to choose from.  Now I know how they do it - they are constantly making sure their flowers are as fresh as if you just picked them from your garden.  If there is one or two sad looking flowers in a bunch, Louise who heads up the floral department doesn’t keep them. The good news is all those bunches now go to Second Bloom.

That means that they are spread around all over the Asheville area nursing homes, Hospice and long term care facilities.  Today we took 5 buckets of colorful roses, baby’s breath, spider mums and more to Magnolia Health Care Center.  They’re still working on their activity room but we managed to squeeze into one end of the room and with help from residents and staff coming in and out, we made enough bouquets to go in everyone’s room.  We heard comments such as:  ‘I really like flowers’ and ‘I was just thinking about you and the flowers and wondering when you might come again’ and ‘Flowers make me happy’…….you get the idea.  Why don’t you come volunteer with us one day soon and hear first hand what a difference the simple gift of flowers makes?

LOOK AT THAT FACE!

When you donate to Second Bloom, here’s the result in pictures! These are just a few of the residents from Magnolia Health Care Center and The Laurels of Green Tree Ridge in Asheville and The McCune Center and Highland Farms Retirement Community in Black Mountain. Priceless!

COLORFUL TABLES FOR MAGNOLIA AND SHADYBROOK

Last time we tried to deliver flowers to Magnolia only to find that they were in the midst of remodeling.  They mentioned their Open House this week and we all thought that floral arrangements for the centers of their tables would look very bright.  Second Bloom was hoping to get a call from one of our generous donors with flowers to spread around.

And Fresh Market did not disappoint….the call came in and we began to roll.  We got six buckets of flowers.  Four of them went into making large bouquets at Magnolia.  We had a lot of help - the room we were using was full of activity.  There was painting, binding their cookbooks and of course, all the re-arranging of the flowers we’d received.  In short order we had plenty of large vases for the tables.  The other two buckets of flowers were delivered and made into beautiful, small bouquets for the dining room of Shadybrook in Black Mountain.

IT’S SECOND NATURE TO RECYCLE

Last week someone thought the name of our business was Second Nature, not Second Bloom.  I thought that was a good second name for us.  If it’s not now second nature for you to recycle, then it ’should’ be.  If our donors didn’t believe in reycling, in greening up their businesses, Second Bloom wouldn’t be happening.  Hundreds of residents would be missing out on beautiful, colorful flowers and not have as much to smile about.  Check out the fun that Vernelle’s having with her hydrangea pom poms!  On this particular Sunday morning we totally maxed out the capacity of the truck, both inside and out.  But it was worth it.  These beautiful flowers from Blossoms at Biltmore Park found their way from the Crest Center to both Magnolia Health Care Center and Hospice.