6 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY MARCH 6-12, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com 831 On a gray, blustery Friday morning in Pebble Beach, Lynn Bohnen and Soozie Bauer are eyeing a large, jumbled pile of pastel-colored flowers and leafy branches in hues of green and gray, plus multiple carts holding finished floral arrangements of roses, hydrangeas, sweet peas, ranunculus and peonies. The mass of flowers, leftovers from a celebration of life, sit outside a loading dock at The Inn at Spanish Bay just steps away from dumpsters where normally such arrangements wind up. Not on this day, however. Bohnen and Bauer are volunteers with Second Bloom, a nonprofit operating on the Monterey Peninsula and in La Selva Beach in Santa Cruz County, that takes floral arrangements from fancy events, extra florist stock and other sources and gives them new life as quaint bouquets to adorn the bedside tables of hospice patients, the homes of Meals on Wheels recipients, as well as inside shelters and other facilities. For the past five years the two Peninsula women along with a cadre of volunteers have been working, sometimes weekly, picking up discarded flowers and greens, then artfully arranging them in vases made from upcycled soup cans, and finally delivering the bouquets to hospice centers and other nonprofit organizations. Last year they made and delivered nearly 6,000 bouquets. “People spend a lot of money on flowers for their weddings and corporate events, and they’re seen once,” says Bauer, who serves as Second Bloom’s treasurer. The Pebble Beach floral department puts together numerous arrangements for all types of events, large and small. Recently Second Bloom scooped up flowers that were done for a visit by Lady Gaga. The flowers from Pebble Beach are in general “incredible,” Bohnen says. “The flowers we get from them are gorgeous. We’re able to make stunning arrangements.” Second Bloom got its start more than five years ago by Anne Bell of La Selva Beach, who had done something similar in Roseville until she moved to the coast. Bohnen, who serves as Second Bloom’s vice president, saw an article in Carmel Magazine about the new nonprofit and was motivated to contact her. Bell put Bohnen of Pacific Grove in touch with Bauer, who lives not far away in Pebble Beach. At first the two women would travel up to La Selva Beach. It was in the early days of Covid-19, and floral shops were all closed but the flowers were still growing in the fields of Watsonville and needed to be harvested. “That was trippy. We just filled our cars up with flowers straight from the fields,” Bohnen says. Later they realized Pebble Beach Company could be a huge resource for flowers and company officials agreed to the ongoing pickups. Typically they pick up flowers from the resort on a Friday and then alert a list of over 40 volunteers that they’ll be arranging bouquets on Sunday morning. They pluck the best-looking flowers that have the potential to last for up to a week. There’s a volunteer who picks up bags of empty soup cans from Gathering for Women in Monterey, which are then transformed by more volunteers who use wallpaper to decorate the cans. On Sunday, about 15 volunteers make more than 200 bouquets inside a donated home garage space in Pebble Beach, each with a bow tied with twine. Hospice centers are a priority, part of Second Bloom’s original mission. The centers receive over 100 bouquets. About 30 arrangements go to Meals on Wheels of the Monterey Peninsula for delivery with meals and to decorate tables inside the Meals on Wheels Community Center in Pacific Grove. The rest go to places like the Casa de Noche Buena shelter and Salvation Army in Seaside and the Shuman HeartHouse in Monterey. They have enough volunteers, enough cans and plenty of access to flowers. What they don’t have is a permanent location. They were only supposed to use the generous volunteer’s garage for one year. It’s been four. They’ve reached out to real estate agents, churches and property owners to no avail, but they’re not giving up. There are so many more people who need a simple bouquet of flowers to brighten their days. Flower Power Nonprofit Second Bloom repurposes fancy bouquets to uplift hospice patients and others. By Pam Marino Second Bloom is an all-volunteer nonprofit that takes flowers from events and creates new arrangements for hospice and senior facilities. “We’ve given to people who have never even had a bouquet of flowers in their lives,” says Lynn Bohnen. “We’re able to make stunning arrangements.” TALES FROM THE AREA CODE DANIEL DREIFUSS Presented By montereychamber.com In CelebrationOf: 2024 Citizen of the Year Jeff Davi The Monterey Peninsula Home Team and A.G. Davi, Ltd 2024 Ruth Vreeland Memorial Public Official of the Year Mary Ann Carbone Mayor City of Sand City 2024 Robert C. Littlefield Award for Lifetime Achievement Shawn Adams Owner, Monterey Signs 2024 Community Impact Award Sandra Button Chairman, Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance Business of the Year Award To Be Announced During the Event GET TICKETS!
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