What Happens When the Flowers Leave the Farm

This is our third year of doing Grow to Give, and I still don't quite have the words for it.

Grow to Give’s mission is simple. For every bouquet purchased from BloomSky Farm, we give one back to our community. Specifically, to organizations in our partner network. Those places serve people who could use something warm and unexpected on an ordinary day. This year, that includes Hocking Hills Inspire Homeless Shelter, SE Ohio Food Bank, and Carlin House Assisted Living, where I was just last Friday. Places where a bouquet of fresh flowers from a field in Hocking Hills isn't a small thing at all.

Last year, during our second year of doing this, we gave over 300 bouquets. To the assisted living facility down the road and to the shelter that does quiet, steady work with people navigating some of the harder stretches of life. This year, we want to double that. 600 bouquets. It's an ambitious number and we mean it.

Last Friday, I loaded up the farm truck and headed to Carlin House Assisted Living with about 20 bouquets and one large arrangement for their memory care unit.

The memory care bouquet is always a single large one, placed in a common area where everyone can see it. People living with Alzheimer's and dementia can't have flowers in their individual rooms because of specific safety risks, but they still deserve flowers in their lives. They can still sit near them and look at them and have that moment of color and fragrance that the rest of us sometimes take for granted.

The residents heard I was there before I'd even finished bringing everything in. That happens every time. Word moves quickly in those hallways and by the time I'd set things up, there was already a small gathering. Many residents already know me. They call me the flower lady, which I've decided is one of the best things I've been called.

Some of the faces last Friday were new. A few residents who hadn't been there on my previous visits, still finding their footing in a new place. One woman stood a little apart from the others, watching, not quite sure what was happening. Her caregiver leaned over and asked her gently if she wanted to pick her flowers. The woman looked uncertain. The caregiver explained that the flowers were free, that she could just choose what she liked and take them.

She hadn't even made her way to the bouquets yet when she turned and hugged me.

She thanked me. Said it was such a kind gesture. Then she went and picked her flowers.

I've thought about that moment more than once since Friday. It was brief and simple and I didn't do anything extraordinary. I grew flowers, arranged some bouquets, loaded them into a car, and drove them to their new home. But something about being on the receiving end of that gratitude—from someone who didn't know me, who had no context for the program, who just responded to an unexpected kindness with one of her own—settled somewhere deep.

I find myself wishing, not for the first time, that more of daily life looked like that. Not grand gestures. Just people being decent to each other. It doesn't take much. A bouquet. A free afternoon. A farm truck that fits 20 arrangements.

That hug stayed with me. Her expression when she finally chose her flowers stayed with me too.

This program exists because we believe that beauty should be seen by everyone. The flowers we grow shouldn't stay in the field nor should it be limited to people who have the means to purchase them. It also belongs to the woman who just moved into assisted living and doesn't yet know what Fridays look like there. It belongs to the person at the shelter who hasn't had something given to them without conditions in a long time. It belongs, in some small way, to everyone.

Each bouquet purchased from BloomSky makes it possible to give one. That's the whole equation. If you've ever bought flowers from us, you were part of last Friday. You were part of that hug.

We're grateful for that, more than we usually say.

If you’re interested in learning more about our Grow to Give program or becoming a partner, please don’t hesitate to contact us.