TRINITY’S GIVING GARDENERS FLOWER MINISTRY

Mission
The main goal of Trinity’s Flower Ministry is to spread love and joy to others through flowers. Using flowers from altar arrangements and those grown in the flower beds at church; the team arranges flowers in vases then shares the arrangements and a hand written card with a Bible verse. Flowers are given for many reasons.

They could be to provide cheer to those that are living in senior facilities, are homebound, are dealing with illness, have surgeries, are grieving the death of a loved one, or are caregivers. They could be given as gratitude for service or congratulations for birthdays, anniversaries, or other life events. Or it could be just because! Recipients do not have to be members of the congregation. Please contact the church office if you would like to suggest a flower recipient!

Please contact Della Jones, (309) 212-2431, if you have an interest in gardening or flower arranging and would enjoy serving in this ministry.

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

BOUQUETS

Altar Flowers - Break down the Altar flowers, make into bouquets, and deliver. This is done on Sundays. On average there are 2-6 bouquets depending on flowers and size of bouquets. Usually a 2-3 hour commitment for 1-2 people each week. During the non-garden months (mid October - May), we have a group that rotates which weeks to take so it ends up about once a month.

Harvesting garden flowers and making bouquets - we do this as a group. A lot of times it is on Sunday to coincide with the Altar flowers, but not always. Frequency is usually once a week in the months of June-October. Length of time varies on flowers and number of volunteers. 90 minutes to 3 hours. This is very flexible.

Delivering bouquets - deliver bouquets to those that are identified. May also help identify recipients. Done in conjunction with bouquet making. Time depends on how many, where, and if taking time to visit. 30 minutes - 2 hours is common.

GARDEN WORK

Spring maintenance - done in April. A few of us participate and it takes 1-3 hours to pull out move, split, trim and fertilize perennials. Also stake peonies.

Planting the flower garden - done around May. A few of us participate and it takes 2-3 hours to direct seed and transplant starts. We go back and put mulch down after seeds sprout which is another 1 hour opportunity 3-4 weeks later.

Watering - on demand. Maybe an hour time commitment when there is a need.

Weed and/or deadhead flower beds - on demand. Maybe an hour time commitment when there is a need.

Fall maintenance - done in early November. A few of us participate and it takes 2-3 hours.

MISCELLANEOUS

Vases - one person is in charge of maintaining our vase supply. It includes collecting and washing donated vases. Also includes keeping indoor cabinet stocked with a variety of sizes of clean vases.

Cards - done throughout the year. It includes writing out cards that are delivered with the bouquets and monitoring the supply so there is alway stock available.

Delivery List - maintain a list of future and past recipients, including current address, phone and delivery dates. Needs to coordinate information with those that make deliveries.

Coordinate donated subscriptions- in the past we have donated subscriptions to school and youth auctions, and to the Dorcas fundraising event. This includes communicating with the event, then communicating and coordinating the bouquets and deliveries to recipients.

Special Events - this is not as structured. It would include coordination and/or assisting during the event. Coordination includes planning the event, coordinating communication, obtaining volunteers and running the event. An example is the Luther Oaks bouquet making event.

Garden design and selection of plants - done in the winter. Considers what worked in previous years, researches new varieties, and identifies what to change. Makes a design plan. Also includes obtaining the seeds and plants.

Seed starting - for any plants identified that should be started early and not directly sown in the garden.

CHURCH LANDSCAPE

We have also gotten involved with weeding and trimming other landscape areas of the church. This is done sporadically, sometimes individually or as a group led by Dean Buhrke.