Lonely Bouquet Day - 30 June 2019

The international Lonely Bouquet Day is a heart-warming idea that we support year after year. If you haven’t heard about it, it’s an idea (developed in Belgium) dedicated to “spreading happiness and smiles, one flower at a time". The idea is simple, make a bouquet, attach a "take me!" tag and leave it in a public place, for a stranger to find to brighten their day. Emily Avenson, farmer/florist and founder of the original Lonely Bouquet movement in Belgium, started the idea through her blog back in 2013. Since then it has been picked up around the world with Florists and groups like NAFAS, WI and BFA taking it on, to spread cheer across the globe. Since the initiative began, lonely bouquets have been scattered across towns and cities on park benches, at bus stops and even on supermarket shelves. Warming stories have been shared by those who’ve found a Lonely Bouquet – often at times when a small gesture of kindness was most needed. Although it can be done anytime throughout the year (Christmas and Valentine's are popular occasions) celebrations culminate on Lonely Bouquet Day itself, which fell this year on Sunday 30th June 2019. What Booker Flowers did on Lonely Bouquet Day? The concept was simple - abandon a bouquet of flowers complete with a ‘take me!’ tag and wait for someone to find it. However, this year we decided to get some local businesses involved too. We held a workshop the day before ‘Lonely Bouquet Day’ and invited some lovely people who we called our ‘Flower Fairies’. These flower fairies helped make eco-friendly, locally sourced flowers (from Lakes & Rivers Flower Farm) and they all had a wonderful time making lonely bouquets. The following day, the flower fairy team were very excited to spread the flowery love, by scattering their bouquets around Liverpool and one even made it up to the Lake District - in the hope of them getting found! Which of course they were all found and taken home by some lucky people. How do we know? Well we received some lovely stories of gratitude. One in particular was from a lady, who had just lost her dog and was out for her first walk without her beloved pooch and found a lonely bouquet, which brought a tear to her eye. This amazing day proved “spreading happiness and smiles, one flower at a time” is not only achievable but possible with the help of some local businesses, some fresh locally produced flowers and a little bit of time. This year’s Lonely Bouquet Day was a great success but we couldn’t have done it without our flower fairies, who we hope will join us again next year! So thanks to 💐 Lucy from @lucyhannahphoto 💐 Lucy from @pinaforesandpeonies 💐 Nicola from @nordicnotesblog 💐 Helen from @allertonmanorgolfclub💐 Polly from @_cakesbyandrew_ 💐 Lorraine from @liverpoolcelebrant 💐 John from @lakesnriversflowerfarm for all your help over our Lonely Bouquet weekend. Also thanks for everyone who got in touch when they found one of our Lonely Bouquets, your stories and photos were heart-warming and the reason why we support this amazing day.