Every wedding and funeral leaves behind flowers that usually end up in the trash. A volunteer group in Louisville, Kentucky called the Flower Buds decided those blooms deserved a better ending. Since 2006, they have collected donated flowers from weddings, funerals, supermarkets, wholesalers and florists, rearranged them into vases, and delivered more than 90,000 arrangements to nursing homes, assisted living facilities, shelters and the VA hospital, about 100 vases every week.
The operation runs out of Crescent Hill Baptist Church and has grown from six to eight volunteers to 40. Stephanie Mullins has been with the group for 18 years, and Clem Russell, a veteran, personally delivers flowers to the hospice unit at the VA. “All these flowers would be thrown in the garbage, so we put them to good use,” volunteers say, and the impact lands where it matters most. “When you are in the end stages of your life you want to be cheered up.”
The Suncoast knows something about flowers. Between weddings, galas, fundraisers, and the florists and supermarkets that serve our beach communities, there is no shortage of blooms that could brighten a hospice room or a shelter table. The Flower Buds prove that a small group with a simple idea can scale into a weekly service with a 90,000-vase milestone. Know a florist or event planner who would partner with a local flower-rescue effort? Tell us in the comments.
