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.
LOOK AT THE LAURELS NOW!
Last month we handed over flowers to Jesica, the Activity Director at the Laurels, to run the program with 
her own crew. The level of participation soared. The dining room was full of residents who made both small and large arrangements. The flowers, from The Fresh Market, delighted everyone.
So now Second Bloom delivers flowers twice a month to the Laurels, they have it on their calendar to look forward to and participation is great! They know who wants to and needs to come out of their room to work with the flowers. And they know who would benefit on that particular day by having flowers delivered to their room. It’s a great change.
SUNSHINE ON OUR SHOULDERS
Everyone was out enjoying the good weather yesterday at Highland Farms. We had our usual suspects helping out: residents Elizabeth and Rose and volunteers Emily and Linda.
Our sunbathers and flower admirers are Dr. Lois Ferm and Steve and Paul Ferm. We decided to use her title of Doctor because it would add a measure of credibility to the website…..what do you think? Steve and Paul came up today from Georgia to visit Lois.
At any rate, it was an afternoon of good laughs. Rose thought it was particularly funny how short I cut some of the flowers. You can see in the photo on the upper left that the pink rose is about to disappear into the cup. What a great expression! And Elizabeth got a kick out of too!
JUST LIKE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Yes, it was a balmy 60 degrees out today as we strolled into Highland Farms. Well, actually we lumbered in with buckets of flowers, pruners, cups, trays and a broom. The flowers today 
came from The Fresh Market. Lots of beautiful roses, lilies, dahlias and more. We found two of our helpers, Helen and Rose. Freddie decided to watch us today and give her back a rest.
Jackie was our volunteer of the day, photogenic as always. Here she is with Rose, but to find out what her day is really like helping Second Bloom, click here.
As I was delivering the beautiful arrangements that Helen and Rose had made, I went into Joy’s room. She’s in the photo on the right, with her bright red 
sweater on. She loves the flowers we bring each week. Joy was on the phone with her 
daughter in San Diego, who happened to be talking about how beautiful the flowers are out there. She, of course, started telling her about Second Bloom and before you know it, I was giving her our website - and I hope she sees her mom. We like her a lot. And today, well, San Diego’s got nothing on Highland Farms……
At any rate, we had enough beautiful flowers to spread around to all the residents, some of the staff and every nursing station they have. Here’s Allen with his arrangement. He lights up whenever I knock on his door with fresh flowers.
SO MANY FLOWERS…
We had a lot of flowers that we brought in to Highland Farms Retirement Community today. A couple of the ladies who always help us, weren’t available. But Helen was ready to go and she’s quite a pro. And being a pro, she doesn’t really like 
cutting the flowers as short as we need to get them into our little cups. So we’re run around finding larger vases for her to work with. This keeps her very happy, as you can see in the photo on the right. And without a doubt, she does have a great eye!
Thankfully Emily and Judy, our volunteers, were willing to cut those flowers short enough. So after a bit of time, all 88 cups were filled and being wheeled down the hall. Here’s Emily with her wonderful smile pushing the cart down to folks like Tommy, who we’ve been visiting every week with flowers. He’s always happy to see us. And below is a photo of 
Dorothy holding up her beautiful arrangement full of beautiful roses. So where’s a picture of Judy?
So where did we get them? Well, today we had flowers from The Fresh Market and from Clements Flower Shop. John at Clements called in the morning a
nd we went right over. Amid much laughter we gathered several buckets of stunning roses, baby’s breath, mums - gorgeous flowers. And we finally got a great photo of everyone. Well, everyone that was there at 8:30 in the morning…..that would be Richard, Holly, Sandy and John.
EXTREME MAKEOVER
Well, maybe it wasn’t an extreme makeover, but the flowers definitely went through a transformation as they found their way from the cart into the rooms. We had a great group of volunteers: Fred, Lizzee and Emily. Below is a photo of Lizzee caught in the magical act of floral transformation. Emily pretends she’s not participating but that innocent look is not fooling us. Lizzee is a florist and has a business called Flowered Events. She transformed some of the arrangements into works of art, or different works of art than they started 
out as. It was totally entertaining to see her sleight of hand……magic, indeed!
Above is a wonderful picture of Fred with Rose. Rose is delighted every time we come. She loves working with the flowers. These gorgeous flowers came from The Biltmore House, Fresh Market and Earth Fare. 
I’m not sure if any of Rose’s bouquets underwent transformation or not. But transformation or not, they all produce smiles - the beauty, the color, the aroma. No one can resist flowers! Here’s Lizze with Marion - Marion picked out her own bouquet and by the look on Lizzie’s face, I think it was one of her own ‘makeovers’. Want to see more great volunteer photos?
LOVING OUR VOLUNTEERS!
This morning worked like knife through soft butter…smooooth! That’s what happens when we have such great volunteers - and so many of them. Judy, Fred and Emily joined us at Highland Farms for the morning. Flowers were generously donated by The Fresh Market. Emily, a new volunteer, participated like she’d been volunteering with us for months. And she was not only not camera shy, but she was photogenic to boot!
When we first arrived we knocked on the doors of Rose and Elizabeth, residents at Highland Farms, and they came right down to use their creativity making sweet little arrangements. They love the activity and it is always a delight for them to see all the flowers. We never know in advance what we’ll be getting but we have yet to be disappointed!
This was the first time we’d been at Highland Farms in the 
morning and it was definitely a buzz with activity. We met all kinds of new people who were glad to finally say thanks for the flowers that they see in all the rooms. Lisa and Emily walked the halls, handing the bouquets out to all of the residents. On the left is Emily with Freddie and on the right she’s giving a beautiful arrangement to Jim. These flowers will last for a good 4-5 days in their rooms, providing color and beauty for them to enjoy.
ORANGE YOU GLAD WE CAME?
It was an obvious joke, what with at least 12 dozen orange colored roses. Some might say they were peach colored, but that doesn’t go with any joke I know. Betty Lou thought it was a pretty funny joke, at least the first time I used it. And Rita, on the right, was kind enough to give it a smile.
Shadybrook has definitely livened up since we started bringing flowers early last fall. Now we get a lot of help, both making the bouquets and handing them out as well. As you can see from the photographs, the small arrangements with the pink roses were the most desirable. Frank chose one and when he was sure no one was looking, he leaned in for a smell. They were definitely sweet!
VERVE ABOUNDS AT HIGHLAND FARMS
So what is ‘Verve‘? We all know it is Western North Carolina’s Smartest Magazine For Women, but what else is Verve? And how did we end up being in it? Plain and simple….it’s enthusiasm, zest for life, vim, vigor, razzle-daz. We got it! And there was plenty of it going around today as we brought in bucket after bucket of roses. Rose, Helen and Elizabeth helped out and Fred came to volunteer as well. We put together over 80 bouquets for the residents. Here is a photo of Helen making a beautiful arrangement of roses. In the background is Nichole Livengood who’s writing the article about Second Bloom. I would have taken many more photos except that we were being interviewed and photographed by yes, Verve Magazine. Be sure to pick up your copy of the March-April edition and look for Second Bloom. We’ll be there somewhere!
LOAVES AND FISHES
The talk today at Highland Farms was all about ‘loaves and fishes’. That’s because every time we pulled a flower from one of the buckets, another flower seemed to magically appear in its place. So from what seemed like a small amount for a large home, actually made flowers for everyone - all the residents, the staff, the dining tables and nurses’ stations! We got some great help today: Rose, Helen and Elizabeth. This was the first time 
Elizabeth helped out and she really enjoyed it. We also had two great volunteers from Minneapolis: Jan and Marga. We kept them as busy as we possibly could. The flowers we got to work with were spectacular. We had red roses, baby’s breath and carnations from Clements and some beautiful yellow spider mums and pink roses from Fresh Market.
SPRING LIKE WEATHER IN DECEMBER
Here we are today at Highland Farms. It’s 65 degrees out so we’re working outside. What a treat for the end of December! Fred volunteered again and Rose, a resident at Highland Farms, also helped 
out. We made bouquets for every resident to have one in their room. The flowers were from Fresh Market - we sure are happy they donate. They have provided more joy than they could possibly know. Look at just a few of the faces of those who received them. To the left is Arnold and below is Eugenia and Frances. They were just two of the 77 who we happily encountered as we rolled our cart down the hallways.
GREAT PHOTOS AT HIGHLAND FARMS
This was a day of piecing together buckets of flowers. We picked up some flowers from Fresh Market in Hendersonville yesterday, but not enough to take anywhere. So we waited to hear from Fresh Market in Asheville today. And they pulled through again…buckets of flowers to take to Highland Farms. Rose helped us today and it was great - we had missed her floral arranging the last two times we’ve been there. Click here for a photo of Rose from a few months ago. That was one of the first times we’d met her, before we knew she liked to arrange flowers. Today it was great to be with her. Look at how much fun she’s having making these beautiful bouquets! Rose made all but about 3 of the arrangements for the residents’ rooms. How were they received? Check out a few of the faces of those who received them! We have photos below of Elizabeth, Barbara and Mary Beth. Elizabeth had seen our news clip on ABC and wanted to hear about more it. She’s very appreciative of the flowers we bring to her and it was great to spend a few minutes sitting and talking.
HIGHLAND FARMS
Flowers galore from Fresh Market and The Biltmore House! We had three volunteers with us this week at Highland Farms: Jackie, Alan and Fred. Helen, a resident there, also helped us again this week. This was a wonderful day for her. She made about 10 large floral arrangements, as only Helen can do. They were stunning! Helen is 98 years old and has a
lot of experience making floral arrangements. She would talk about the flow of the flowers, the beauty of each bouquet. The staff kept coming in and hovering around her while she worked. She expressed her love for everyone that came in: ‘This is my favorite nurse.’ And ‘This is my favorite nurse.’ The love was genuine and poured out of her. You can see it on her face, as well as Fred’s, in the photo 
to the right. And the best part for her was that she had beautiful bouquets to give them. It’s a wonderful thing when residents have something they can give to those that care for them, be it staff, family or friends.
Fred joined Alan and Jackie as our volunteers today and the work, once we found where to set up, went smoothly. Alan’s shown here taking a few minutes talking with Bill as he gives him a fresh bouquet for his room. And here’s a photo of Alice with a bouquet of roses that Helen made. She was very excited about the flowers and was delighted that they were for her.
DOUBLE BLOOMING
It’s the day after Thanksgiving and we’re double blooming - flowers from Fresh Market and The Biltmore House. We make our way east on 240, looking at the mall traffic and happy to be blooming instead of shopping! We have so many flowers that we’ll be taking some to Shadybrook 
Assisted Living Center tomorrow. But today we’re headed to Highland Farms Retirement Community in Black Mountain. We find Helen there who joins us in making a ton of small bouquets for each of the residents. Helen has some genuine floral experience, has even won some ribbons for her arrangements and is a lot of fun to work with. She gets very involved with her creative designs and didn’t even mind when the fire alarm went off. Alan volunteered with us today and now has several new girlfriends who are hoping he’ll come back and see them again real soon.
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!
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ALL IN A DAY’S BLOOMING
Today started off with a visit to George ‘The Fern Man’ Pickering at his Lake Eden home. I had knocked on his door early one Sunday morning looking for the ‘Barn’, where a wedding had been held the night before. He was quite gracious and in the course of talking, he asked if he could donate some ferns to our blooming business. I’m not one to discourage any recycling, so I agreed. I had no idea how gorgeous they would be - or how many! We stuffed the truck full of them and headed off to the McCune Center where Tamara happily greeted us. In no time they knew exactly where they were going - these ferns had indeed found a good home. They can now be seen hanging in the dining room windows, in the large solarium and probably most everywhere you turn!
Well, this exchange would have been a fine blooming day all by itself, but when we looked in the rear view mirror we remembered that we’d also picked up 4 buckets of flowers from Fresh Market. Okay then….but before we went anywhere else we needed to refuel. After a much needed lunch at the Morning Glory Cafe in Black Mountain, we headed over to Highland Farms. Help kept arriving. There was a lot of joking around but also a fair amount of quiet concentration as the flowers got rearranged into our now famous cups. Within the hour we had made about 80 bouquets, enough for almost every room.
FALL LANDS AT HIGHLAND FARMS
The Blossoms at Biltmore Park made 8 beautiful fall wreaths for the center of tables at a wedding at Lake Eden. There were sunflowers, roses, dahlias and even pumkins. They fit perfectly on the tables in the main dining hall of Highland Farms. And you can see here on the right that Sally is happy to find vases for a few bouquets!
BLOOMING AT HIGHLAND FARMS
When someone asked what I’d been doing all day, I told them I was blooming at Highland Farms. This was the first time that Rose and Helen helped us bloom, making small arrangements. This is a photo of them busily at work. They made all 75 bouquets that we handed out. It was all we could do to keep them supplied with cups and flowers. We were creating quite a stir and staff kept stopping by to see what we were up to. Here’s a photo of Cora with Helen. 
Everyone left happily with flowers in hand. We had a great time - started off with over 80 roses The Flower Gallery donated to us. We then took a short break and Lisa arrived with more flowers. These were from The Bloom Room, left over from a wedding they’d had in Burnsville - stunning roses of every color, dozens of orchids, gerber daisies and bells of Ireland (Scotland?) with interesting greens to put with them. 
There were sweet little small cabbages and even an artichoke in one of the arrangements!
NEW FRIENDS AT HIGHLAND FARMS
We took a beautiful truckload of flowers to Highland Farms last week - they reaped the rewards of our scavenger hunt. Here is a photo of one of our new friends. This is Helen - she’s 92 and the first time we brought a cup full of flowers to her she said, ‘Be sure to let everyone knowthat you just made a 92 year old woman very happy.’ I took a photo of her that was very good, but she wasn’t sure she looked grateful enough so we took a few more - here is Helen looking grateful and enjoying the wonderful aroma of the flowers.