Written by our Founder and CEO, our Celebrations Pulse Sunday Letters aim to engage with our community. From sharing stories to welcoming your ideas, we want to help you to express, connect, and celebrate the important people in your life.
Forty years ago, we started our business as a single floral shop on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. There were about 40 customers who really made the business work. They would visit our neighborhood, buy a cup of coffee, leave their dry cleaning with us while they ran their errands, and we would chat about restaurant recommendations and community happenings. We would run classes on floral arranging, and we would share tips and tricks along the way about making centerpieces for all holidays and occasions.
Today, we continue to focus on our relationships with our customers but at a much larger scale utilizing technology to reach millions of people. In so doing, we aren’t looking to acquire customers but to acquire relationships and build community.
To that end, we are always looking for ways to unite our community around celebrations, meeting new people, learning and having some fun. That’s why we joined forces with Alice’s Table two years ago and are now taking that collaboration to an exciting extra step.
A little history about Alice
Alice Lewis, the founder of Alice’s Table, started her business by offering flower-arranging classes. In 2018, she appeared on “Shark Tank” and successfully secured investments from well-known investors Mark Cuban and Sarah Blakely.
Alice was looking for a partner who could help her scale her business, and we were seeking a partner to support our mission of expanding our engagement and experiential offerings. We had hosted hundreds of people at our Harry & David Hosted Dinners, were hosting classes around the country, and were working on plans for Celebrations Books Club, Connection Communities peer-to-peer support groups and digital round tables for our community. Alice, and we, thought her in-person floral arranging would fit well.
There is no such thing as bad timing
In March 2020, after several meetings with Alice, we partnered.
Talk about an auspicious start! Initially, we had grand plans for our partnership, which included 150 monthly in-person events around the country. Then, just a few days before we were to get started, the pandemic set-in. Suddenly, we were all in lockdown, and we had to adapt quickly to a world rocked by COVID-19. After many sleepless nights, Alice and our team leads, Loreen and Meredith, came up with a plan to turn lemons into lemonade.
Making lemonade from lemons
Together, we pivoted Alice’s business model and developed floral kits to be delivered to customers’ doors so that we could go virtual. Going online turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
Each year since launch, we’ve hosted more than 50,000 people in our online experiences. Our focus was to help our customers express and connect, particularly during a tough couple of years. We loved to hear that customers would set up one screen for their floral or charcuterie class and another with a friend or loved one. Mothers and daughters gathered virtually to take floral arranging classes when they could not celebrate Mother’s Day together.
Expansion for our community
In summer 2020, we started to hear from our community that they would like to take classes beyond floral. Together, we launched charcuterie classes featuring our Harry & David fruits, nuts, and cheeses.
Strengthening the partnership
After a nearly two-year partnership, we are thrilled to announce that Alice’s Table will join the 1-800-FLOWERS family so that we can further our commitment to customer engagement, building communities, and providing opportunities to connect.
I am over the moon about becoming part of the tradition and history of 1-800-FLOWERS,” Alice said. “The company’s core mission of building communities dovetails perfectly with the vision of Alice’s Table.
We believe it is important to provide opportunities for people to connect and share. Creative environments for customer interaction go a long way toward the betterment of mental health and provide us ways to celebrate moments both large and small.
– Jim
We hope you will join us in welcoming Alice’s Table to our family
Written by our Founder and CEO, our Celebrations Pulse Sunday Letters aim to engage with our community. From sharing stories to welcoming your ideas, we want to help you to express, connect, and celebrate the important people in your life.
As children and young adults, most people have little trouble finding and making friends. There’s something about toys, playgrounds, and school that foster connections and comradery – and, often, friendships that can last a lifetime.
Inevitably, though, even the strongest friendships made early in life start to change as you grow older. Certain events, like new jobs, provide opportunities to meet new people. If you have a partner or attend school, you also have a chance to meet new people.
And then, as we move into later adulthood, many of our oldest friends from our younger years have relocated and raised their own families. They also likely developed new friendships at work, in their neighborhoods, or with fellow parents at their children’s schools. That’s why, in adulthood, we need to be deliberate about meeting new people. Our friends at Vital Choice recently posted an article about making friends after 50.
If you’re looking for a New Year’s resolution, consider reaching out and rekindling friendships. We have never heard anyone say, “I have way too many friends” and have never heard one person say, “There are way too many people who care about me.” By taking a few simple steps, you can instantly enrich your life and that of another person. Jim recently spoke to Authority Magazine on Medium about finding happiness and joy even during turbulent times and it really does all come down to relationships.
You don’t need a reason to reach out
Remember, you don’t need an excuse to reach out. Send an email, text or make a phone call. You can restart relationships at any point.
Nurture the relationships you have, rekindle the relationships you’ve lost, create the relationships you wish you had.
Dr. George Everly
For Jim, it takes a plan.
I keep lists of categories of friends, including childhood, professional, and golf buddies. I send memes, GIFs, or funny cartoons to people on my lists as a way to liven up the conversation, and invariably they respond with their own humor. We use humor to stay connected, so there’s still a current in the line.
Jim Mccann
Jim recently spoke to Ashley Hunter, an insurance executive. Ashley has lots of personal and professional experiences abroad, which has made her a seasoned relationship builder and maintainer.
“It really becomes a conscious decision to take the time to keep in touch,” Ashley explained. “One of the things I do is keep a relationship calendar that includes scheduling of contacting personal and professional friends. As you get older, it becomes much more important to initiate contact with friends. It allows them to know that they still have a place in your world, and it’s good for mental health. It always brings a smile to your face when you hear from friends, and normally you just pick up right where you left off with lots of laughs and humor.”
Additionally, Ashley, who travels frequently for work, always seeks out friends in different cities she visits to meet for a drink or coffee.
Sharing Tools for Developing & Managing Adult Friendships
How do you nurture your network of relationships and friends? If you join a community association, go to a business conference, or even attend a cocktail party, why not sit next to someone you do not know? At events or parties, Jim always looks for someone standing alone and introduces himself. Not only has he met many wonderful people that way, but it makes them feel less awkward and him too.
How do you stay connected to old friends or make new ones?
Perhaps reacquainting with old friends or seeking out new ones can be part of your 2022 New Year’s resolutions. You might be hesitant and think, “Oh, it’s been so long,” or “Why would they want to be friends with me?” The self-doubt is understandable; however, we’re willing to bet that the person on the other end would be delighted to hear from you.
This year let’s reflect on all the ways that you helped us to grow and foster our community. Your tips, advice, and stories inspired us. We hope you enjoyed and utilized some of the resources we shared to better express and connect with the important people in your lives.
WINTER
Our Celebrations Pulse letters written by our Founder and CEO reach 7M community members
WINTER
Our community sent 14M roses on Valentine’s Day and 330k of you celebrated #nolimitsonlove
1-800-Flowers.com hosts 9 Light After Loss series with Modern Loss’ Rebecca Soffer. Community members, like CO Police Commissioner Steve Davis, share the impact of these communal sympathy expressions with us
SPRING
More than a 1/4 of a million community members sought or provided advice on Connection Communities, including 14K mothers, daughters, and granddaughters who connected in our Motherhood connection community
SPRING
Our community members sent 23M stems to celebrate mom on Mother’s Day and 1.5M of you watched our Love Makes A Family event on Facebook Live
More than 50K community members arranged flowers and signature charcuterie boards in co-branded Alice’s Table workshops
2.5M community members joined us for Breakfast at Wolferman’s Bakery since its launch in late March
SUMMER
In partnership with GLAAD, our community members sent Kaleidoscopic Roses to celebrate Pride month
SUMMER
Thousands of you attended our inaugural Celebrations Book Club by Cheryl’s Cookies with author Jennifer Weiner
Harry & David welcomed 800 dinner guests through Hosted Dinners since its launch
expanded meaningful employment opportunities for adults with disabilities, opening 2 new campuses and employing an additional 100+ farmers in 2021
Smile Farmers, working across 6 campuses, tripled the yield of hot sauce: harvesting a total of 2,206 lbs. of hot and sweet peppers which are currently being processed into 6,213 bottles of hot sauce
Looking Back at Our Online Events
In the past year, we hosted over two dozen online events aimed at helping you express yourself, connect with loved ones, and celebrate the moments in your life. More than 8 million people joined us over the course of the year. As you’ll see in this video, we shared everything from heartfelt stories to practical tips – and had quite a bit of fun in the process!
If you’re looking for emotional support, peer acceptance, and a sense of belonging, Connection Communities at 1-800-Flowers.com is a wonderful place to start. Our series “Strength of Community” explores the conversations that take place in this unique online forum.
Social media platforms certainly have their benefits. However, when you’re going through a rough patch and need a friendly ear, social media sites like Facebook and Twitter can be too public and unpredictable for your needs and comfort. Are you tired of lurkers, flamers, and the pressure to compete for popularity with endless “likes” and photos? Well, now there’s a place to simply share your interests and joys or pour your heart out, knowing you will get helpful, caring feedback from like-minded people.
1-800-Flowers.com has partnered with Wisdo, an online forum that’s a uniquely judgment-free zone. On the site, people come together to seek help and advice, share positive and negative life experiences, and form meaningful connections with others who have been in their shoes and can offer their personal experience and wisdom.
Everyone who accesses Connection Communities through 1-800-Flowers.com receives free access. Here, you can enter any of eight different communities including relationship advice, loneliness and expressing gratitude and share your life’s experiences, journeys and everyday ups and downs with others who have gone through or are going through similar situations.
Establishing an Online Forum for Community Connection
Boaz Gaon launched Wisdo in Israel in 2016 as an unprecedented “social health platform” where people could reach out to one another emotionally with specific shared interests, concerns, and problems, ranging from financial woes and loneliness to the death of a loved one.
Social health can be more important than the things you eat and whether you jog or not.
Boaz Gaon
Founder
Wisdo
“Social health can be more important than the things you eat and whether you jog or not,” Gaon says. “The people who surround us, especially as we are going through consequential life moments, are one of the most significant determining factors in our health and well-being. The people you need in those troubled moments are helpful individuals who can identify with you.”
That, he says, is what Wisdo provides — a real, knowledgeable community to help you through your problems, with no trolling, no bullying, no offensive comments allowed. “We’ve showed that contrary to other social networks, we actually help people feel better about who they are, where they are, and where they can get to,” Gaon says.
Partnership with 1-800-Flowers.com
When Wisdo launched in 2016, it received a massive public response in Israel. By 2018, it had won the Best Practices for Social Health Award and was the No. 1 app for social impact on Google Play. It had expanded to six other countries, including the U.S., U.K., and Canada. It’s attracted more than two million members.
We are here to help people express themselves and connect to the important people in their lives.
Jim McCann
Founder and Chairman
1-800-Flowers.com
When Wisdo reached the U.S., 1-800-Flowers.com took notice. Founder and Chairman Jim McCann, director Adam Hanft, and others recognized Wisdo’s raison d’être was very much in sync with their company’s — providing encouragement and support for people through life’s major events and daily travails. So McCann’s and Gaon’s teams partnered, ultimately creating the Connections Communities online forum at 1-800-Flowers.com.
“We are working with Wisdo because we share a common mission,” McCann says, recalling the shared community of his first flower shop more than 40 years ago. Today the company has grown to be a community of millions of people, but its goal is the same. “We are here to help people express themselves and connect to the important people in their lives,” he says. “Wisdo creates communities that make that possible.”
How to access the Connection Communities online forum
Click on the community of your choice, and you’ll find a brief list of questions covering the typical experiences someone in that community will have gone through. Answer “Been There,” “There now,” or “Both” to each question that pertains to you, and that creates a profile of you that others can review to get an understanding of your perspective and background.
After that, you can immediately enter that community and join conversations that resonate with your current or past experiences. You can also introduce yourself and start your own conversation.
People may offer support, give you suggestions, or identify with you and tell you their own stories. Wisdo has enlisted various “life coaches” — professionals who may add their two cents to the conversations when they believe it can help or will invite you to special directed sessions with fewer people.
Leveraging the experience of others
There are also regular members who have benefited so much from and contributed so much to the groups that they now have monikers like “mentor,” “guide,” and “helper” by their name. They bring their depth of personal knowledge to the mix. There’s even a “Mama Bear” who will introduce herself early on and can guide you when you need special assistance. In other words, you will find many layers of support.
“I have been an active member of the communities for the past four years, and I have found that connecting with others going through the same thing as me has been incredibly helpful,” says Annmarie Giannino-Otis, community director of the Wisdo Communities. “Just click on the tab of your choice, and you can instantly become part of the conversation, experiencing the power of belonging. We are excited about this partnership with Wisdo and can’t wait for you to make it part of your life.”
Our series “Growing Smiles” explores the challenges faced by America’s developmentally disabled adults and the solutions provided by Smile Farms, the primary philanthropic partner of 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc.
It’s hard to write about the upcoming hot sauce from Smile Farms without loading up on the clichés. It’s made with love. It’s all about teamwork. It’s a product that benefits lots of people. And it’s a sauce that gives back.
That’s because all of those are true.
Smile Farms is a nonprofit that trains people with developmental disabilities to work in gardening and horticulture, helping them master new life skills, contribute to a team and community, and take home a paycheck. And, of course, along with those comes a well-earned sense of pride and accomplishment.
This year, all seven Smile Farms partners are planting peppers on their campuses, which means 10 gardens growing about 2,500 pounds of peppers, if the garden gods smile. That should make 6,000 bottles of the hot stuff.
“Over 250 Farmers will be growing the hot and sweet peppers this season,” says Diana Martin, managing director of Smile Farms. “Planting began on May 19, and we plan on an October harvest.”
The perfect pepper plan
Smile Farms is working with Brooklyn Grange, a commercial urban farm that operates the world’s largest rooftop soil gardens — it grows on three roofs in New York City and harvests more than 100,000 pounds of organic produce a year.
The new sauce will be made with peppers grown by Smile Farmers and use Brooklyn Grange’s tried-and-true hot sauce recipe.
“Phoebe Tran, our garden manager, will be visiting each campus once a month to supervise the growing of the peppers for the Smile Farms hot sauce,” explains Michelle Cashen, project manager at Brooklyn Grange.
Michelle lists a slew of peppers with interesting names: The sweet peppers being planted by Smile Farms are Carmen, Escamillo, and Roulette. The hot peppers are Flaming Flare (yes, it sounds a bit dangerous), Hot Paper Lantern, Hungarian Hot Wax, Krimzon Lee, jalapeño, and habanero.
She says the peppers “will be especially good for hot sauce because they are unique, high-yielding, and very flavorful, giving lots of juice. They have a lot of meat to them, and are also bigger than some chile peppers.”
Source of inspiration
At the Smile Farms partner League Education and Treatment Center (LETC) campus in Brooklyn, Mark Handelman had the inspiration to create a hot sauce featuring peppers grown by Farmers on his campus. The idea was to use sales proceeds to help fund the site’s gardens and foster pride and satisfaction when the Farmers see people enjoying the fruits of their labors.
BurnAbility is the catchy name of the LETC hot sauce, created with Brooklyn Grange, and Phoebe Tran still consults at the LETC campus once a week.
We want to put something out into the world that says people with disabilities can do everything you can do, and things that maybe you can’t do.
Diana Martin
Managing Director
Smile Farms
LETC program staff say they are delighted with the expertise the Brooklyn Grange team offers: “The Farmers have learned how to employ organic and sustainable methods, including the use of compost, companion planting, and how to attract pollinators and ‘good pests,'” they say. “The farmers are responsible for seeding, planting, tending, weeding, watering, fertilizing, harvesting, storing produce, and composting.”
Louis Pelino, director of Workforce Development for CFCS/LETC, stresses that it’s not just peppers that grow from the farm. “I can tell you that the farmers derive immense satisfaction from working on the farm and producing a product that they can be proud of,” he says. “They are excited to come to work every day and are eager to learn new parts of the process. Each person has found new ways to excel. For most of them, working at the farm is more than a job. It’s part of their identity, for which they are very proud. The paycheck doesn’t hurt either — payday is a very exciting day here!”
When LETC started its pepper project in 2019, Smile Farmers at the campus grew and harvested 337 pounds of hot and sweet peppers that eventually turned into 1,000 bottles of delicious red and green hot sauce.
Sauce specifics
So, inquiring spice connoisseurs want to know: What will be the flavor profile of this new Smile Farms sauce? Michelle is happy to share everything but the secret recipe:
“The characteristics of the Smile Farms hot sauce are that it will be mild to medium in heat and very flavorful,” she says. “Fresh herbs and the variety of peppers will make a difference — we are not using extracts as other recipes do.” One thing that will not be in the hot sauce? Artificial ingredients.
Shining a light on artists
The labels for the hot sauce bottles have had as much thoughtful input as the choice of peppers. For starters, the lively pepper character on the label is “Patty Pepper,” named in honor of Patty Altadonna, assistant to 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. Founder Jim McCann. The background is artwork from the Farmers themselves. “The Farmers at the Viscardi Center made the artwork for this year’s bottles, and every year we will feature art from a different partner,” says Diana. The artwork on the first labels is an orange and red design that conjures up peppers, heat, and flame.
Diana’s face lights up when she talks about the hot sauce labels: “Our partner organizations tell us they have people who are just amazing artists,” she says.
“We want to put something out into the world that says people with disabilities can do everything you can do, and things that maybe you can’t do,” she explains. “Smile Farms is not limited to gardening, even though that’s where we started — we want to bring that awareness in a much larger way. We see the label as a way to highlight those other skills as well.”
When local florist Patti Fowler studied plant science in college, she didn’t plan on a career in floral design. But her passion for flowers and plants — fueled by training in the principles and elements of floral design — changed her career path. “Floral design actually found me more than me finding floral design,” Patti says.
http://michaelwillphotography.com
Her love of flowers and plants led her to the wholesale floral industry in her hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Then it took her to Southern California and what she calls “the grower side” of the business. But 16 years ago, drawn back to her roots, she became the owner of Flowerama of America in Pittsburgh’s suburban North Hills area.
The floral studio specializes in unique floral creations and horticultural installations, building on the foundation of Patti’s early plant education and feeding her hunger for floral design. “The industry itself has been my passion for 30 years now,” Patti says.
Sourcing flowers to convey emotions through floral art
As a retail floral shop owner, Patti is familiar with the multiple hats it takes to run a thriving local floral studio — from product procurement to last-minute deliveries when the situation requires.
The flowers that are currently in my cooler have probably gone through more continents to get here than I will travel in my lifespan.
Patti Fowler
Florist
Flowerama
Sourcing the best flowers and plants for her shop is one of her favorite tasks. Sometimes that means finding the perfect flowers for a specific event. Other times, it’s stocking the cooler with the best flowers in season to have spectacular blooms ready when she gets a call for a One of a Kind bouquet.
“If it’s being grown in the world somewhere, I usually have the contacts so that I can procure it,” Patti says. “The flowers that are currently in my cooler have probably gone through more continents to get here than I will travel in my lifespan.”
From Costa Rican ranunculus and Italian Ruscus to locally grown Pennsylvania blooms, the flowers communicate on behalf of the people behind the request. “They give us a little bit of creative freedom to help them express their emotions based upon the product that’s looking the best on the market,” she says. The result is floral art.
A local florist takes inspiration from personalities and flowers
As an artist, Patti’s avenues for inspiration vary. For wedding events, she starts with and builds on the bride’s vision. For tributes, she learns about the loved one who has passed away. “Let’s get a feel of the personality behind that piece so that we can best create a sentiment that fulfills the heart,” she says.
At Patti’s florist shop, creativity doesn’t take a break when holidays and traditional color schemes come around. “That doesn’t mean that the rest of our rainbow of colors is unavailable at that time,” she says.
Enriched by insights into the recipient’s personality, non-traditional colors or unexpected flower choices that “dance through the arrangement” add excitement and meaning for the people involved.
Regardless of the project, inspiration flows from Patti’s flowers. “I know a lot of people say the flowers speak to them,” she says. “The flowers don’t speak to me; I speak to the flowers.”
The curve of a stem or the lines of a bloom inspire. Then, Patti takes the driver’s seat, melding principles and elements of floral design into creations that only she and those flowers could produce.
Creating One of a Kind bouquets and connections
When clients request a One of a Kind arrangement, Patti’s hands become extensions of their emotions. “It gives me the ability to provide the best customer experience that my clients can have,” she says. The recipient gets an original design that transforms the day’s freshest, most fabulous flowers into a beautiful composition of true floral art.
These unique creations work for every sentiment and occasion. One of a Kind elements extend from design to expanded palettes of blooms and foliage, often including premium and more unusual flowers. “It’s a great choice all the time,” Patti says. “It gives us, as retail florists, the opportunity to create the floral art that ultimately we want everybody to receive.”
Looking back on her journey, Patti is grateful that her floral art has created and nurtured long-standing connections with local families. “I’ve been blessed to have the opportunity to start with recital flowers for some of my young ladies, to their prom flowers, to their wedding flowers, to their baby shower,” Patti shares. “So, we grow with our people.”
And for the people of Pittsburgh’s North Hills area, that’s part of what makes local florist Patti Fowler a #OneOfAKind.
Our series “Celebration Inspiration” is all about bringing you top-notch advice and creative ideas to make the most of life’s special moments.
The COVID-19 pandemic is stretching well into its second year, and there are still an unknown number of months before we see our way clear of this threat that has affected so many lives. Fortunately, more people are signing up, waiting in line, and taking the vaccination step that protects loved ones and communities.
Something else people are doing? Celebrating. We spoke with people far and wide to learn why and how they’re rejoicing because of getting the vaccine. Although the reasons are distinct for each person, there are common threads that unite us in caring for each other.
Celebrating with a road trip
Margaret’s quilt.
Family visits are at the top of people’s vaccination celebrations. Some are in the planning stages, while others have already happened. Retired teacher Thomas Hamilton and his wife Peg were thrilled to get their vaccines and head south in their camper. “We talked with our daughters about getting together in early spring,” he says. “They picked South Carolina and flew in with our granddaughter from out west. The weather was warm, and the girls had rented a house. This gave us time to relax together, as the vaccine has added to our peace of mind. It meant so much to sit around the table, once again enjoying family meals together.”
Chasing one’s passions
Registered nurse Margaret Hourigan and her husband Nick are combining a road trip and family visit with side trips to places linked to their passions. “There are many reasons for being relieved that we got our vaccines,” she says. “We feel safer traveling to the Midwest to visit my 85-year-old brother. I’ll then visit Quilt Town USA, a spectacular destination for quilters. While I’m there, Nick plans to peruse the archives at the Genealogy Center at Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne.” She says she sees the vaccine as a gift that’s letting them take a meaningful and well-timed trip.
Creating everyday magic
Eben Tracy, a direct support professional for adults with disabilities, loves to garden in his free time, and he’s celebrating his COVID-19 vaccination status both near and far. His valley home in Oregon has views of Mount Hood and a long, rich growing season, encouraging the flowers and veggies covering his once-bare plot.
Eben’s yard.
“There are intensely amazing garden centers here,” Eben says. “The vaccine makes me feel even safer in a place that is quite socially considerate. Plus, I’ll fly in September to visit family and friends. That means seeing my garden at Mom’s and going to an old-time agricultural fair.”
Writing new life stories
Heather’s two dogs.
High school English teacher Heather Ahern Huish says she feels a sense of relief knowing she’ll be able to see her friends and visit her favorite restaurants. “I’m looking forward to returning to school and being with the upcoming seniors who will hopefully get to enjoy the usual celebrations,” she says. “We welcomed two puppies and their bounding joy and energy to our cozy home. Along with these growing sisters, we’re looking forward to our annual upcountry vacation. And before our kids are completely on their own, we plan to have a family tour of the British Isles. The vaccine offers a sense of hope.”
Reliving memories
Registered nurse Sarah DeCato’s excitement is of the contagious type that people feel after getting their COVID-19 vaccination. “We’re fortunate to live where we can get outside as much as we wish,” she says. “Our big celebration of receiving the vaccine is coming up soon when we take a weekend trip to New Hampshire. A highlight will be chugging up Mount Washington on the Cog Railway, something we did a few years ago. Our kids are old enough to thoroughly appreciate the trip, the spectacular views of the Presidential Range, and maybe a visit to one of the three Grand Hotels in the area. Like the one where we’ve celebrated several of our anniversaries!”
Send flowers to celebrate
If you have a friend or family member who just got the COVID-19 vaccine, sending them a bouquet of flowers is a nice way to celebrate. Most people enjoy the surprise of a bouquet delivery and the beauty of fresh-cut flowers.
Even if you don’t get a bouquet of flowers from someone else when you get the COVID-19 vaccine, you can always treat yourself with some flowers. You’ll add some color and great smells to your house — an excellent way to celebrate getting the vaccination.
Explore the ways in which people care for each other in the series “How We Care.” In this article, we examine therapeutic memory gardens and how plants, flowers, and nature are helping people with dementia.
The sweet scents and delicate blossoms of flowers on a wedding day. Vibrant greenery as the backdrop for a stroll through a forest on a lazy summer afternoon. The coarseness of earth slipping through fingers while gardening on a warm spring day. Over the course of a lifetime, we experience millions of interactions with flowers, plants, and nature.
Reminders of these little experiences bring back emotions for people in the autumn of their lives. Caretakers of people struggling with cognitive impairments, Alzheimer’s disease, and dementia increasingly use flowers, plants, and gardens to evoke memories of past events or feelings.
Researchers have found that nonpharmaceutical treatments such as therapeutic gardens, many also including active horticultural therapy, improve emotional well-being and alleviate agitation, physical aggression, and disruptive behavior, without side effects. In addition, gardens can be incorporated into daily activities and woven into the living environments.
“The main idea is to design the therapeutic landscape that will help residents interact with nature and enhance their quality of life,” says Beth Couet, a certified landscaper designer who designed a therapeutic memory garden at Rosewood Manor, a senior care residence in Harwich on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
How do therapeutic memory gardens work?
Therapeutic memory gardens tap into our hardwired instinct and life-long desire to be amid nature, plants, nature, says John Zeisel, Ph.D., author of I’m Still Here: A New Philosophy of Alzheimer’s Care. A sociologist with a background in design, Zeisel champions so-called “ecopsychosocial” interventions in dementia care.
The main idea is to design the therapeutic landscape that will help residents interact with nature and enhance their quality of life.
Beth Couet
Certified Landscape Designer
“Access to outdoors is vital,” Zeisel says, stressing the therapeutic effect of combining nature, time, and memories all in one place. “It is in our nature to be outside. In a sense, it’s a human right.”
Zeisel points people planning therapeutic gardens to archival flower catalogues from the decades when residents were growing up. “Find out what was popular then, and plant old-fashioned flowers that promote memories,” he says.
“Outdoor space has to be seen as one more common area — it just doesn’t have a roof on it,” Zeisel says. “Landscape architecture must be brought in at the beginning of every project: The garden may be dessert, but it’s an integral part of the full meal.”
Planning a memory garden at Rosewood
Rosewood Manor, a former sea captain’s house on Cape Cod, has 33 beds. The average age of the people who live there is mid-90s. The garden project got its start when Couet approached the manor’s administrator, Jan Epstein, with an idea to build a therapeutic memory garden.
Couet was inspired by professional and personal reasons. She studied at the Landscape Institute in Boston, which is part of Boston Architectural College. She graduated in 2013, and her thesis was on therapeutic gardens for people with memory impairments.
But she also had personal reasons to propose the project.
“My mom and grandma had Alzheimer’s, and I decided to do the project because of them,” Couet explains. “I’m glad I did.” They were the inspiration for Couet’s work, and she sees her garden at Rosewood Manor as part of their legacy.
Epstein was quick to agree to Couet’s idea. Many of the residents have fond memories of gardening and flowers, and Epstein was delighted that Couet could help her keep that connection alive.
“Beth reached out with a wonderful idea and spent a lot of time at Rosewood Manor gathering information about what the residents and staff wanted,” Epstein says. For her part, she consulted with the company that oversees Rosewood Manor and navigated the corporate paperwork to get approval for the project, securing the funding in 2014.
Memories of flowers
Couet kept the importance of flower memories in mind as she designed Rosewood’s garden. In planning it, she chose colorful and fragrant flowers — such as old-fashioned roses, lilac, lavender — as Zeisel recommends, and herbs that residents can brush against as they walk to engage the senses and recall happy times from the past.
“When I spoke with the residents, I talked to a woman who said that when she was getting married, she had no money for flowers for a bouquet,” Couet remembers. “The morning of the wedding, a neighbor brought a big bunch of lilacs for her to carry.” Couet made sure to plant lilacs in the garden.
A memory garden serves multiple needs
Therapeutic gardens rely on both architectural and landscape principles and psychological strategies to create the optimal experience for people with dementia or other memory-related conditions.
Couet initially thought about putting the garden in the front lawn because there’s a good-size space, but it’s also noisy from the street, and she wanted it to be a peaceful, calming place for residents and their families. She says she drew her design inspiration from Clare Cooper Marcus’s Therapeutic Landscapes: An Evidence-Based Approach to Designing Healing Gardens and Restorative Outdoor Spaces, and The Healing Landscape: Therapeutic Outdoor Environments, by Martha Tyson.
“People with memory impairments can find it difficult to navigate and may become disoriented,” Couet says. To combat this, she knew it was important to have a single path with a garden entrance that is immediately clear from the door of the residence. Couet also installed landmarks in the garden: She attached an old bicycle painted Cape Cod blue to the side of the building, and she also added a “totem pole” with greeting signs on it from her own yard. “There’s an antique plow and bird feeders to give the residents clues to where they are in the garden as well,” she explains, tipping her hat to Clare Cooper Marcus’s ideas.
Couet asked the Rosewood maintenance department to install raised flower beds to make it easier for residents to garden and a workbench where they can tinker with projects. “They can help pot annuals or pull out weeds, according to their physical abilities,” she says.
A community project
The residents are always in the garden with a staff member or relative, and the design includes places where people in wheelchairs can sit while leaving plenty of room for others to walk past. Easy, nonconfusing circulation is vital.
How things in the environment touch our spirit is very important.
John Zeisel, Ph.D.
Author
I’m Still Here: A New Philosophy of Alzheimer’s Care
Couet used Cooper Marcus’s recommendation to put furniture and benches in the garden: “I added a little table and chairs that families can move to suit their configuration and make it more personal,” she says.
The Rosewood garden has been a community project from day one. “We had a day when current and former families came to help plant, which was incredible,” Epstein says. “Some wanted to purchase a rosebush or another plant in the name of a loved one, too.” Everyone mucked in, digging, planting, and spreading mulch.
The garden is planted so residents can see the changes of the season through the plants and there is always something new and colorful to look at. Couet even planted narrow pines that can have holiday lights hung on them.
Quiet relaxation for residents and visitors
All of the design elements come together to make the therapeutic garden a special space where people can be apart but still within their community. “It’s a very peaceful, peaceful place,” Epstein says. “People really enjoy it, and the families love it. Some residents can express their enjoyment of it, and it certainly is a wonderful environment for them.”
She can’t pick out a favorite element of the therapeutic garden — and she says it’s probably different for everyone — but she did enjoy the cranberry harvest festival they celebrated out there with families. “We had games, prizes, different foods,” Epstein recalls. “One resident used to grow cranberries, so his family donated cranberries and we made baked goods with them.”
The residents also love keeping an eye on the vegetable garden, though the staff do the work there. “They watch as the cook goes out to the garden and comes back with a bowl of delicious ripe tomatoes,” Epstein says. “They love knowing they’ll be eating them for their next meal.” The garden also grows cucumbers, herbs, and squash, among other crops.
Thriving with the garden
Zeisel always encourages interaction with gardens, making them a true experience. “Rosewood Manor could create a gardening club, for example,” he suggests. “In winter, residents could plant seeds in pots inside marked with a date for planting to reinforce time.”
In line with his philosophy that being able to be outdoors is a human right, he says: “The garden is a place for celebrating, meeting with families, and enjoying sunshine. The beauty that will surely be there is as important as the therapeutic design — how things in the environment touch our spirit is very important.”
What is it they say? “If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.” Local florist Vivian Chang lives by this quote. She’s loved art and flowers since she was a child, and she’s turned her creativity into a successful profession.
Vivian’s floral career began to bloom when she was in college and in need of part-time work. Her cousin had a flower shop in Los Angeles not far from where Vivian attended school and offered her a job, so she decided to give it a try. “I was going to be a salesperson,” she says. “After a week, I was designing already.”
It was the perfect match. “I just fell in love with the business.” And 35 years later, that’s still true. Now she runs her own shop and is excited every morning to see what projects the day will bring. She especially looks forward to meeting new walk-in customers and catching up with her many repeat clients.
A local florist’s talent for pleasing customers
Vivian has a talent for working with gorgeous, colorful flowers and creating one-of-a-kind bouquets, and when her designs bring her customers happiness, she’s happy, too.
Every day is different for this local florist — she may be asked to provide a bouquet for a birthday or flowers for a funeral or a wedding — and she enjoys helping people who don’t know exactly what they want. “We always start with colors,” Vivian explains. “You have to think about what color the person likes, what kind of flowers they like. They might not have a specific flower, but they know, ‘Oh, she likes spring-looking flowers or pastel tones.’” Just a few words can point the designer in the right direction and help her create something special and unique.
“When I start designing, it doesn’t matter what happened that morning or what’s going on in my life,” Vivian says. “When I look at flowers and when I’m creating, I only focus on what the person would like and what my customer asked for. There is nothing else.”
A peek behind the scenes
Vivian loves the variety and quality of blooms she gets from 1-800-Flowers.com. “They come from all over the world,” she says, with tulips arriving from Holland and most roses from Ecuador or Colombia. High-quality flowers from 1-800-Flowers are supplied to local florists like Vivian, and the company teaches florists how to make sure the flowers look great for a long time.
When I look at flowers and when I’m creating, I only focus on what the person would like and what my customer asked for. There is nothing else.
Vivian Chang
1-800-Flowers.com Local Florist
“Once we get the flowers, we give them all kinds of vitamins to make them look prettier and live longer,” Vivian says. Whether customers walk into the shop or order online, she wants them to enjoy their flowers for as long as possible.
While Vivian’s store is very close to Beverly Hills, she caters to all budgets, and she says that customers appreciate being able to order from the 1-800-Flowers website, where they can get fresh ideas and customize their gifts. “The product development team is creating something new every day,” she says. “They’re creating all the time so the online customer will be able to pick and choose what they like.”
For Vivian, her mission is the same no matter what occasion the flowers are for. Whether it’s a happy celebration like a wedding or a birthday or an occasion where people are in need of extra comfort, such as at a funeral, this local florist wants her flower arrangements to raise customers’ spirits and make a lasting impression.
