Report 3 from Green Project – The Learning Continued

Last Saturday SOAR Foundation had volunteer and supporter appreciation party. I made ten center pieces. I used crabapple fruits from office yard and added some greens and flowers from my yard. I had been thinking what containers to use, later I remembered that I had saved bubble tea cups whenever I had the tea, those cups were perfect containers for the event. People liked the Chinese character “dream” on the containers and asked me where I bought the containers. They were surprised to learn that the cups were the used bubble tea cup from “Fantasia Coffee & Tea”, my favorite bubble tea place.

The learning experience of the green project was not all successful like this. So far, it has been mixed.

Bottle brush tree is common in San Francisco bay area. Their flowers are pretty. I had been wondered for long time why I never saw an arrangement with it. In all the books and magazines I read, there was only one arrangement used dried bottle brush branches. I asked my teacher once if she could get some bottle brash branches to try. “It’s not an arranger.” She simply answered without farther explain. If I had access to it, I would try it to find out, but I did not have the chance.

Since I took the green challenge, I emailed everyone in the office to ask floral donations. My director gave me permission to use any materials in our yard, she also suggested me to put a bucket in the kitchen to take the donations. A week later, she brought me some blooming bottle brush branches along with a list of the plants in her yard.

I was excited when I saw the bottle brash branches. I arranged them in the lobby an hour later. After few hours, I went back to check the arrangement. To my surprise, the table surface was yellow, covered by pollens. Second morning, I brought my camera in but found the blooms were down.

The following week I picked up some ferns from the office yard and arranged them in the lobby. That night, my neck was itch so badly I scratched hard while in sleep, the skin was red and swollen in the morning. I did not know why until I saw the yellow layer on the lobby table second day, I realized that I had allergy reaction from the spores since the fern touched my neck while I arranged it. I suffered for few days.

Trying is one way to learn. I will keep exploring and report back to you.

Enjoy the pictures and Happy Monday!

In Friendship through Flowers,
Yirou.

Here are the previous green reports:

Being Green
Report 1 from Green Project: SOAR Fund Raising Dinner Party
Report 2 from Green Project: The Father

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