Submitted by Renee Tucci AIFD PFCI
At 3:30pm on Tuesday March 18th, my cell phone pinged a text message….”Just putting out there that we’re flower-bombing Rittenhouse Square tomorrow with all the flowers that would have been for weddings and special events. I’ve limited it to less than 10 people for some good old designer fun. Want to join?”
My first thought revolved around the comfort of the self-quarantine routine I’d fallen into in the last week. If I did this, I’d have to shower, change out of my sweatpants and be away from my dogs for a few hours. That would be a bummer! On the other hand; to get my hands on flowers again (it had been over a week!), to “play” with some of my favorite designer friends, and to spread some flower love to the public all at once, well, that was worth the effort to lift myself out of a quarantined funk! It took me three minutes to respond “I’ll be there!”
The message came from my friend Katie Robinson, owner of DFW Event Design in Bensalem, PA. I’m lucky enough to be on her freelance team and we’ve done some fun events together. After many of Katie’s corporate and social events had been cancelled, she was left with the same conundrum that so many florists and wholesalers are in now…”What do we do with all of these flowers?”
She partnered with another local event designer, Kerry Fabrizio, owner of Fabufloras in Horsham, PA., and together they decided to create a public floral installation at one of the busiest outdoor spaces in Philadelphia. They very wisely reached out to two local wholesalers, DVFlora and Pennock Floral to see if they happened to have product that was about to be discarded that they wanted to send over. Sure enough, at 11 a.m. on March 18th, three trucks full of flowers and supplies showed up at Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia.
A team of 6 designers got to work dividing the product between that which was to be used to beautify the park, and that which could be taken home by passers-by. You wouldn’t believe how quickly hundreds of stems of flowers disappear when folks are told, “Take them, enjoy them, they’re free!”
People who received these blooms were so incredibly thankful. To see the faces of people as they rounded the corner and saw the park literally blooming in front of their eyes, well it brought unexpected happiness to their day and joy to their faces that is simply hard to describe in words. Some were brought to tears of joy, while others immediately got on the phone to face-time with friends and family, showing them with disbelief what was happening in the square. Folks of all ages came around, including local construction workers and people who were fighting cabin-fever with their children.
This install was timed to happen on a beautiful afternoon, just before an evening rain (to water for us!), followed by a few more beautifully foretcasted days, so these flowers had some real life at the park before a team returned to remove them the following week. The square happens to be surrounded by businesses that were still mostly open, or operating on take-out, and many, many apartments, so foot traffic was high….even at an appropriate social distance!
Our mechanics were simple….bricks of midnight Oasis, the only kind DFW uses now, were taped into dishes and set into urns and on the fountain deck. Other areas and statues were based with floracages and tied into place with bindwire.
I highly recommend repeating this type of public installation in your community if you have extra blooms on hand, whether we’re under times of self-quarantine, or back to a new normal. It can be a smaller scale where, perhaps, just a single statue is enhanced. That will be enough to bring wonder and surprise to the many people who are out getting some fresh air.
The thing that surprised me the most is that the public didn’t just want to see the flowers and enjoy them, they wanted to know who we were, where we were from. They felt the need to support us and make sure the right people got the credit. Katie had the forethought to beautifully pre-etch some wood signs that listed the reason for the installation and the partners involved. These were added to the installation areas as well. This made it easy for the public to know who to tag in their SM posts, and tag they did! For days afterwards the responsible parties were tagged in feed and story posts; the installation actually went viral!
In a year full of ups and downs, this was certainly an “up” in a very trying time. The POWER OF FLOWERS was showcased better than any installation or event I’ve ever been a part of before, mostly because they were unexpected. Who doesn’t love a good surprise?
You can view my photos here:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/XYDi3dc8gpehw2Sv8
This event was covered by the Philadelphia Inquirer and Fox 29 news first, followed by many, many others
