Cut flowers in nature’s palette of colors are a graceful way to bring the beauty of the outdoors inside.
“We make them for the schools, for the teachers," said Kay Phillips, the coordinator of the Petal Pushers. "We make them for senior citizens homes, and we make them for Meals on Wheels."
The group of "petalers," as Phillips calls them, is part of the Point Loma Garden Club and meets each Tuesday.
“I think we have about 15 to 7 'petalers' as I call them, and we meet each Tuesday," she said.
Before the bouquet building can begin, a couple of the petalers gather the building blocks: the flowers. That happens behind the Trader Joe’s store at Liberty Station.
“They come every Tuesday, and we have those items ready for them to pick up in the morning," said Jeff Beucler.
Beucler is the general manager of the store — in Trader Joe’s speak, he’s the "captain." His team sorts out the flowers that are past their sell-by date but still have plenty of life left in them.
“We try to keep them so that they’re not damaged, you know, we keep them outside, and we keep them fresh, and they pick them up, and then I guess they take them and do their thing and make bouquets for a bunch of other people," Beucler said.
That process happens a short drive from Liberty Station, in the parish hall of All Souls’ Episcopal Church in Point Loma.
“You can use your own creativity because we don’t have any rules, so you can use your own creativity, and people sometimes come in a little hesitant — ‘Oh, I don’t know how to arrange flowers’ — and I say: 'You don’t need to know how to arrange flowers, you know, you’ll pick it up,'" Phillips said.
The flowers are spread out across tables. The petalers look over the palette — selecting just the right combination of blooms to be rebirthed into a new bouquet: a floral refreshening.
“I have a couple of people here today that were really hesitant, and they’re just, they’re pros. ... They were planted, and they blossomed," Phillips said with a laugh.
The floral fashioning takes a couple of hours. Then, all this work moves into the final phase, the payoff for the petalers.
A few of them drove all the newly minted bouquets downtown to the Mary and Gary West Senior Wellness Center.
There were smiles all around, and lots of thank-yous as the senior women in the lobby and dining hall were all presented with bouquets.
It turns out that the smiling faces and all the unbounded joy here is very much a two-way street.
“I’d just like people to know that we’re very grateful to have this opportunity to serve the community, extremely grateful, and I think all of us get more than we give," Phillips said.
From donated flowers, to the volunteer spirit of people that care about their community to the spreading of hand-delivered happiness — the circle of joy was complete for another week.
