Employees and volunteers at J. Miller Flowers and Gifts’ in Oakland, California, gathered in 2019 to assemble Petal it Forward bouquets. This year’s Oct. 20 event will mark the business’s seventh year participating in Petal It Forward. (Photo courtesy of J. Miller Flowers and Gifts)
Just like the blooms themselves, the plans to participate in the Society of American Florists’ Petal It Forward flower giveaway are unique, not only in how floral professionals are preparing for and promoting the event, but also in the way in which they will give away the flowers.
Petal It Forward is a goodwill initiative in its seventh year that invites floral businesses nationwide to pass out bouquets — one for the recipient to keep and one for the recipient to give away. More than 400 businesses from 45 states and three countries — Canada, Colombia and Ecuador — have registered for the Oct. 20 event.
Whether giving away 12 or 1,200 bouquets, florists are putting a personal spin on the event.
“It’s such a good random act of kindness,” says Lauren Lebowitz, the assistant support manager of Binley Florist in Queensbury, in upstate New York. The team at Binley Florist will hand out 1,200 bouquets at two schools during drop off and pick up.
Valerie Lee and her sister Robbin Lee co-own J. Miller Floral and Gifts on the north side of Oakland, California. Lee has a crew of friends who help her with the event. They take advantage of the California weather and the store’s garden area to make the experience fun and COVID-19 safe.
“We have tables set outside in our pumpkin patch, socially distant, and that’s when we design the bouquet and attach our labels,” Lee says.
On the day of the event, Lee’s team will pass out flowers at police stations, fire stations and at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital.
Jennifer Barnasevitch, owner of Smith Floral in West Hazelton, Pennsylvania, also enlists help to assemble the flowers her shop will gift to people for Petal It Forward.
Jennifer Barnasevitch (left), owner of Smith Floral in W. Hazelton, Pennsylvania, and friend Emily Hetherington deliver Petal it Forward bouquets to staff at a health and wellness center in 2020. Smith Floral enlists Girl Scouts to make bouquets for the event, happening Oct. 20. (Photo courtesy of Smith Floral)
“We have senior Cadet Girl Scouts – high school students – who come in the night before and we wrap all the bouquets,” she says.
Because 2020 was a tough year for health care workers, Barnasevitch and her team handed out flowers at a local health and wellness center that included many doctors’ offices. This year, one of the places she plans to take her bouquets is a kidney dialysis center.
Located on a busy, four-lane road in the heart of a business district, Lauren Moss, the co-owner of Moss Flowers, plans to have her team arrange just a dozen bouquets for Petal It Forward and then deliver them to fellow business owners in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, a small city just east of Nashville.
“It’s kind of our way to give back to them and support them as a local business, but also share the message of what Petal it Forward is and the importance of flowers in everyday life,” Moss says.
The event is meant to spread goodwill, but it also a way for florists to market their services.
Curie Mincer, owner of Atkinson Floral, a flower shop that sells home décor and includes a coffee bar, will spread the joy of flowers in her own northern Nebraska town of Atkinson. But she also sees Petal It Forward as a chance to promote her business beyond her city limits.
“We have an opportunity in a town close to us in Stuart, Nebraska. Their florist just closed within the last few months,” she says. “We are trying to capture that town, so we want to take 20 or so to that community.”
Many shops have garnered local news coverage of the Petal It Forward campaigns (see SAF’s media resources). Moss says she sends an email blast to her customers to promote the event. And many participants promote the event on social media.
Lebowitz says she is exploring the idea of borrowing her son’s Go Pro camera and broadcasting the giveaway on Facebook Live for her shop’s followers.
The event, Moss says, is a great way to remind people of the joy of fresh flowers.
Moss and her husband Joe took over their 70-year-old business from his parents. She quoted a favorite saying of her father-in-law to describe the smiles she sees because of Petal It Forward.
“Never underestimate the power of a flower,” she says.
For more information, resources and to register for Petal It Forward, click here.
Nona Nelson is a contributing writer for the Society of American Florists.