The Joy of Flowers

May 11, 2024May 11, 2024 / Martha H / Leave a comment

The Pulpit Flowers Group and Flower Garden Team contribute so much to our members’ and friends’ joy. The following are photos of most of our Pulpit Flower givers. We thank them all.

Linda P., the force guiding our celebration of flowers, writes the following:

Our purpose is to provide fresh flowers for display in the sanctuary to enhance Sunday Services, and provide flowers for church meetings, church members, as well as the Care Team, Minister and others to take to those towhom they minister.

The flowers growing in our flower garden which is located at the front of the Enrichment Center are for all the church members/friends/staff and other associated folks/charities.

Some of the members of our group work in the Church Flower Garden help to grow flowers. Some of our members provide fresh flower arrangements from our garden and/or other sources to embellish our Sunday services.

We invite you to sign up to bring flowers once or more per year in memory of loved ones/causes or in celebration of memorable achievements, etc. Or, just because you want to bring flowers for all to enjoy! Email: flowers@orlandouu.org and Linda P. will respond to help you arrange for a specific date.

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Which Way Is the Sanctuary?

October 30, 2023October 31, 2023 / Martha H / Leave a comment

1U is more welcoming than ever this month. Please note the new signs directing people to our different buildings, especially at the entrance to our parking lot. Also, please note that there is a new sign on the corner of Hampton and Robinson which should be more visible and more durable.

So now there is no reason not to send folks to 1U as they will no longer get lost – unless they wander into the Flower Garden, the Community Garden or the Labyrinth. Also, note there there is a new outside Community Bulletin Board at the Enrichment Center driveway entrance. See Amy for items to be posted.

Celebrating our DLRE and Flower Volunteers!

October 8, 2023October 9, 2023 / Cat / Leave a comment

Curious about what the 1U flower ministry has been up to?

We recently celebrated out DLRE Judith’s first year with us at First Unitarian Church of Orlando! Mary D. presented her with a lovely bouquet.

Below are Jenny L. and Patty R. who deliver flowers from our church flower garden regularly to those who are at home recovering or otherwise in need of some cheerful flowers to remind them of all their friends at our church.

Colleen and Ray W. generously and regularly sign up and bring lovely arrangements for our Sunday services. Here they are with flowers they brought for our 10/8 service.

Joy D. with gorgeous hydrangeas that she brought for our Sunday morning service.

Jean S. with a sunflower she helped grow in our church flower garden:

Katherine V. with flowers she brought for our Sunday Morning service.

Many thanks to our other flower volunteers who grow plants and make arrangements! Pics below are of flowers grown on our church campus and given to friends and members of our church.

A bouquet of snapdragons and bleeding hearts.

A bouquet of orange heliconia.

A bouquet of blue salvia.

Would you like to sign up and help grow flowers or bring an arrangement on Sunday? You can come early to cut flowers from our church flower garden, bring a bouquet you grew at home, or bring a store bought bouquet.

You may honor a loved one having a birthday or a special occasion by giving flowers and having a dedication line read in the Joys and Concerns. For example, “The flowers today are given by Mary to celebrate the 70th birthday of my husband, John.” Sign up early if you want any specific date, as many dates are already taken!

Sunday flowers

September 24, 2023September 24, 2023 / Martha H / Leave a comment

Thank you, Cindy, for today’s pulpit flowers!

Would you like to volunteer to bring the flowers? You may honor a loved one having a birthday or a special occasion by giving flowers and having a dedication line read in the Joys and Concerns. For example, “The flowers today are given by Mary to celebrate the 70th birthday of my husband, John.” Sign up early if you want any specific date, as many dates are already taken!

You are welcome to get flowers from the church flower garden or from wherever you choose. We have vases you can use. You are welcome to take the flowers with you after the service — for yourself or to give to whomever.

We ask that you put the flowers in place 20 to 30 minutes before the service so that congregants can admire the flowers as they enter the church and are seated.

There are many other ways you can help with pulpit flowers and the flower garden. Read more here.

For more information and how to join us, please email Linda P. at flowers@orlandouu.org.

Flowers inspire beauty, generosity, hope and love

May 30, 2023 / Martha H / 1 Comment

Our church photographer, Martha H., is shown above with an arrangement of lilies and greenery from our church flower garden in one of the dozen vases that were gifted to the flower team by Lorraine Surlak. Also pictured is our “flower pied piper,” Linda P. Ask Linda how you can be involved by digging, weeding, giving, delivering.

Flower Garden Help

April 12, 2023April 16, 2023 / Cat / Leave a comment

We have never had any money allocated in the church budget for the Flower Garden. However, we did apply to the board for money this year, and we have high hopes they will help– and we hope you will help, too! Here’s how:

Give from the stash in your garage (or wherever) little bud vases that have a small (about the size of a quarter or slightly larger) opening that we can use for a bouquet of fresh flowers from our garden and deliver to members/friends who are in “Flower Need.”
Meet Linda P. and Jean S. on a Saturday morning at the Flower Garden 8:00 –10:00 am, to help cut flowers and greenery and make arrangements to be distributed on the next day, which is a Sunday. Contact us in advance to be sure we will be there on the Saturday you choose to help. We are there most Saturday mornings, but not all!
Grow seedlings at your home from seeds (supplied) in potting soil (you supply) for 4-6 weeks, then plant them in our flower garden, marking them with wooden markers (supplied) so others do not think they are weeds. Contact email below.
Sign up for a day to fertilize flowers and greenery. Bring 20-20-20 fertilizer and/or special flower-bloom-boost fertilizer, and go for it on everything that is not a rose bush or a newly planted seedling. Be sure to let us know at flowers@orlandouu.org what date you want to sign up for so that we don’t double fertilize because too much fertilizer kills plants.
Sign up to bring your pump sprayer and neem oil to spray Podocarpus that has sooty mold (black crud) on it. Must be done at dusk per the schedule. Please contact in advance for important details. Podocarpus is excellent greenery for use in our arrangements.
Sign up to wash the plant/bacterial residue that is dried up in the already-used and returned vases on our closet shelves in Gore Hall because dried up bacterial stuff` will kill the flowers when the vase is next filled with water.
Sign up and purchase the 3 bags of pine bark mulch for the path and/or the 6 bales of pine straw that we use in the flower garden 2 x/yr. and distribute it in the garden/path.
Sign up on the schedule to bring fresh flowers to a Sunday service once a year or more to commemorate a special date in your life, or in the life of a loved one.
Donate money by sending it to church clearly marked “FLOWER GARDEN.”
Advise us of a church member’s or friend’s contact info of someone who needs fresh flowers delivered to their door because of special difficulties/concerns/joys.

Contact or Sign-up: Flowers@Orlandouu.org

Red snapdragons and red and white bleeding hearts and greenery from our Church Flower Garden.

Jean S. tending to the newly donated Crinum lilies.

April 26 — Fun with Flowers

March 2, 2023March 6, 2023 / Cat / Leave a comment

WUURL member Sandy A., who is a professional florist, has volunteered to hold a flower arranging lunch demonstration and workshop to support the work of the 1U Flower Team. The team grows and purchases flowers for Worship services and special events and regularly delivers flowers to many of those having Joys & Concerns.

Sandy will demonstrate how to arrange flowers in the first half of the workshop during the WUURL meeting from 11:30 to 12:30. Then, in the next hour from 12:30 —1:30, there will be an opportunity to use the info learned in the first hour to make your own flower arrangement to take home! Both the free demonstration during the WUURL meeting, and the paid second half in the next hour are open to anyone who’d like to attend. So, invite your friends to join you for this 2-hour workshop!

COST

The cost of the fundraising workshop is $15 paid in advance either in cash or by check to “First Unitarian Church of Orlando” with “Flower Team Workshop” in the memo line to reserve your place in the workshop making a flower arrangement. You can also pay online. Click DONATE and put “Flower Team Workshop” in the memo line to say what your donation is for.

Linda P. is coordinating the event. You can email flowergarden@orlandouu.org for more info.

Contributions of any amount are always welcomed by the Flower team. They’d also appreciate receiving small vases or olive or kimchi jars which they can use as vases for small floral arrangements from the church garden.

Free Poinsettias

December 27, 2022December 27, 2022 / Cat / Leave a comment

Please take any poinsettias you would like with you next time you are at church. Free to anyone who wants them to take home or to loved ones. They will be outside the kitchen door until after the Sunday, Jan. 1, 2023 service, then discarded.

Where Have All The Flowers Gone?

November 26, 2022 / Cat / Leave a comment

100’s of flowers have been picked from the 1U Flower Garden and shared with folks to bring them joy and connection . Now it is time to settle the ground for winter- weeded, soil enriched and gently covered with pine straw. Linda P. has touched so many hearts with her leadership to maintain this area of 1U campus.

Flower Team Welcomes New Helpers!

October 24, 2022October 24, 2022 / Cat / Leave a comment

The Pulpit Flowers team is responsible for the lovely flowers in the pulpit each Sunday. We are thrilled to welcome new team member, Joy D., shown with the gorgeous hydrangea flowers that she recently brought for our Sunday service.

We also work closely with the Flower Garden group, which grows flowers and greenery for pulpit flowers, Caring Circle arrangements, and more. At our recent work party amidst the blooms we welcomed new visitors Kayla, and Nikki with her son. Also joining us in flower gardening is a long-term established wonderful member of our church, Jean S! She is new to working in our flower garden also. Anyone is welcome to attend our gardening events!

Holidays

We will be ordering flowers from the University of Florida Extension Service which coordinates with a 4H club for their service project to “give” poinsettias for a donation. These will be our holiday poinsettia flowers in the sanctuary during December. Would you like to help the flower team to water them once each Sunday before or after services in December so they don’t wilt?

The poinsettias will be available for delivery to nursing homes afterwards, so let flower team know, please, if you want to take some to a nursing home or other appropriate person or place.

You can reach us at flowers@orlandouu.org to help or for more details on our projects!

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