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SALT LAKE CITY — UPS drivers and other volunteers took to the streets to deliver something other than packages at various doorsteps across the state this week — flowers. Thousands and thousands of them, all courtesy of one of the largest greenhouses in the nation.
Amid a slew of cancellations because of COVID-19, Milgro Nursery was left with hundreds of thousands of flowers with nowhere to go. Rather than let them die in the greenhouses, the family-owned company has been spooling out thousands of colorful flowers to the community in various forms.
“These flowers have been growing in the greenhouses for months and months and months,” said Cherilyn Smith, Milgro Nursery marketing director. “I cannot stand the thought of having these flowers just go to waste, especially when there’s so many people that are scared and uncertain.”
Smith said the company has distributed flowers to people in nursing homes, assisted living communities and veteran homes, as well as teachers trying to adapt to teaching in an online environment and hospital staff “who are putting themselves at risk” to care for other people.
At one point, Milgro Nursery staff and volunteers, armed with gloves and masks, passed out the flowers to people waiting in their cars in a Chick-fil-A drive-thru.
As of Friday the nursery had given 23,500 pots, but will reach 27,000 by Monday. As long as the flowers continue to be in good condition and staff are able to find different locations to take them, they’ll continue sending out as many as possible, Smith said.
“We got hit hard just like many other businesses. Not only our industry as a whole has suffered, but we know many other businesses across the country and globe are suffering,” she explained. “Our inventory is a little different in that we can’t keep this inventory in our warehouse or on our shelves. We just wanted to find a way to get it out and spread some hope and happiness into people’s homes.”
She said the most rewarding part has been seeing people’s reactions, and realizing small actions can bring some hope to people during a difficult time while the alternative would have been the flowers being dumped.
Smith said that after a few days of effort only amounted to a few thousand flowers being distributed, she felt strongly that they needed to find a way to get more flowers into the community beyond what they were capable of doing on their own.
Her husband works with UPS, so they arranged for drivers to make the deliveries while following their routes across the state. Drivers going out of the Salt Lake UPS hub carted the flowers to their various stops throughout the day, as did those out of St. George and in California where Milgro Nursery has an additional location.
Drivers left the potted plants on thousands of doorsteps as they carried out their routes, complete with a note encouraging recipients to “grow together” as a community.
“I feel like there is always a silver lining in unfortunate situations and this has been just a wonderful silver lining for us to be able to come together as family and neighbors and community to just pull together,” Smith said.
Shannel Tingey, who is helping deliver the flowers in Utah Valley with her family, said her husband and 10-year-old son made the lengthy trip to Milgro Nursery to load up their trailer with 2,400 flower pots.
Tingey’s husband took the flowers to hospital staff while she and their kids are dropping them off at various doorsteps.
Car loaded to the brim with the flowers, Tingey said they gave one to her son’s church teacher Friday, who lit up from the gesture even though her yard was already teeming with flowers.
“It was just a simple little potted flower, but their faces lit up and I think what I got from it is it’s so good to see people recognizing others during this time of seclusion and isolation,” Tingey said.
