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Tulip Fest had to be canceled, but Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm finds new life for flowers - OregonLive

Family members set up a farm stand, sold a few flowers, and figured they’d be forced to let the rest rot.The family then received an email from a West Virginia nursery owner who had an idea and wanted to pass it along to nurseries across the country. The idea: Take flowers in the fields to assisted living centers where residents were living in isolation.Emily Iverson, 21, a family member and Wooden Shoe’s social media coordinator, teamed up with Lexie Criscola, 22, the tulip farm’s marketing coordinator, to make it happen.They created a ticket order on the farm’s web page where, for $15, people could pay for a pot of tulips to be delivered anonymously to an assisted living center.So far, the farm has delivered 6,000 pots of tulips to assisted living centers in Mount Angel, Molalla, Canby, Albany and Eugene.“The farm will never see back the lost revenue from the festival,” said Iverson. “The $15 covers just a bit of the costs it takes to do this delivery. But this is not about money, this is about goodwill.”Criscola said a person can request tulips be delivered to a specific assisted living center or let farm officials figure out where the tulips would bring a bit of joy.“We reach out to a center and figure out the protocol for a delivery,” she said. “We make sure everyone in the center gets a pot. We deliver them to the front door, and then step back.”Iverson estimates all the tulips will be given away within the next couple weeks.“It makes us feel like we are doing something for the community,” she said.[embedded content]-- Tom Hall... https://www.oregonlive.com/hg/2020/03/tulip-fest-had-to-be-canceled-but-wooden-shoe-tulip-farm-finds-new-life-for-flowers.html

Stuck inside? Tips for indoor gardening to bring green to your space while quarantined - USA TODAY

Gardening is... good for the soul," says Kevin Warhurst, vice president of the Merrifield Garden Center in Fairfax County, Virginia, one of the leading garden centers in the Washington metro area. Scientists say it's also good for body and mind."According to the Journal of Health Psychology, gardening is a great stress reliever, which most of us can use now more than ever," Warhurst says. "Just 30 minutes of gardening lowers cortisol hormones, the fight-or-flight response."Plants can remove allergens and produce oxygen in a room. And take it from NASA: Some indoor plants can clean the air inside, says Randy Schultz, gardening expert and content editor for HomeGardenandHomestead.com."A NASA study in 1989 proved that plants can remove (cancer-causing) toxins such as benzene and formaldehyde from indoor air," Schultz says. "Common houseplants such as pothos, gerbera daisy and peace lily are great air filters." Aloe vera plants are not only pleasing to look at, they're easy to grow and easy to transplant, and it's probably the most widely used medicinal plant in the world: Desert-dwellers have known for millennia it's a soothing treatment for minor burns. In the coronavirus crisis, it's a main ingredient of homemade hand sanitizer.Depending on where you live, you can probably visit your local garden center (and certainly its website) because it is considered an "essential" business still open during government-ordered shutdowns. As in the case of Merrifield, most gardening centers' products are outdoors on sprawling properties, so social distancing is possible.Here are some tips for indoor or urban gardeners provided by these experts:1. Get a seed-starter kitTender plants, including tomatoes, basil and peppers, or flowers such as marigolds, moon vine and salvia, can be started indoors and planted outdoors in pots or window boxes later in the spring, says Warhurst. "You can use a seed starting mix, plant the seeds in trays or small pots, and place the... https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2020/03/31/coronavirus-quarantine-tips-garden-indoors-while-stuck-inside/2928016001/

Feed the soul: In chaotic times, gardening becomes therapy - Sentinel & Enterprise

The virus scare could even usher in a new crop of gardeners who start from seed rather than risk the crowds buying starter plants.Kendra Schilling of Scott Depot, West Virginia, doesn’t have space for a sprawling garden, so she’s planting potatoes in a bucket and trying to figure out with her teenage daughter what to do with other vegetable seeds.“I usually go buy the plants and stick them in the dirt. But this year we’re going to try to do the seeds,” she says. “Thank God for YouTube.”___Associated Press writer Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report. https://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/2020/03/31/feed-the-soul-in-chaotic-times-gardening-becomes-therapy/

Cosentino: On the phrase 'in lieu of flowers' - Auburn Citizen

The common motivation among people was the simple desire to say, "I hurt. This is wrong, this must stop."In fact, with virtually all tragic events, the same script plays out. Think Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook Elementary School, Las Vegas, Parkland and the Pittsburgh Synagogue ... and the list of mass tragedies goes on. In all these cases, flowers served as the salve to soothe the collective souls of a grieving public.And it is not just tragedies on this scale, either. When dignitaries’ lives end, tragically or not, impromptu floral memorials appear as if from ether. John Lennon, Princess Diana and John McCain comprise a small part of the list that illustrates the point.Even in our local communities across the nation, unexpected deaths inspire floral tributes. Bouquets dot our highways where accidents claimed the lives of motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians. Just watch the news and see the piles of flowers laid in memoriam when, in this world of ours, a child or young person’s life is cut tragically short in the violence we see all too often.So, why is it that with the deaths of those we love the most — our wives, husbands, children and grandparents — today’s social norms insist on the phrase “in lieu of flowers.”.modal-backdrop.in { filter: alpha(opacity=90); opacity: .9; background-color: #fff; } #lee-services-modal .dismiss-paywall { font-size: 50px; margin-top: -10px; z-index: 1; color: #000; opacity: .3; float: right; font-weight: 300; text-decoration: none; display: inline-block; line-height: 1; } #lee-services-modal .dismiss-paywall:hover { opacity: .6; } #lee-services-modal .dismiss-paywall:hover { opacity: .6; } #lee-services-modal .modal-content { box-shadow: 0 5px 15px rgba(0,0,0,.1); border: 1px solid rgba(0,0,0,.1); border-radius: 3px; } #lee-services-modal { font-family: 'Lato', sans-serif; } #lee-services-modal .modal-body { min-height: 300px; } #lee-services-modal .close { font-size: 30px; margin-top: -8px; z-index:1; } #lee-services-modal .modal-top { margin: 0 -15px 20px -15px; padding: 15px; z-index:0; border-bottom: 3px double rgba(0,0,0,.1); } #lee-services-modal .title { font-size: 24px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; ... https://auburnpub.com/lifestyles/cosentino-on-the-phrase-in-lieu-of-flowers/article_f5c28053-9411-52e0-b6d4-480c6c690868.html