Parrish woman turns grief into giving with free flower bouquets

PARRISH, FL (WFTS) — What started with six jars of flowers on a front porch has blossomed into a growing mission of kindness for a Parrish woman who says gardening helped her cope with the loss of both of her parents.

Sherry Williams said gardening has long been a part of her life. Her father grew vegetable gardens when she was young, and as an adult, Williams began growing vegetables herself, first in containers on an apartment balcony and eventually in a large garden behind her Parrish home.

WATCH NOW: Parrish woman turns grief into giving with free flower bouquets

“The garden has always been a form of therapy for me and it was a connection to my dad,” Williams said.

Flowers eventually became another important part of the garden, inspired in part by her mother.

Williams said her mother enjoyed seeing pictures of what she grew and encouraged her gardening from afar.

“She was cheering me on through my gardening,” Williams said. “I decided that I should start planting more flowers because her belief was that people should get more flowers throughout their life instead of after they're gone.”

Williams said her mother suffered a stroke and died in March before she could see the flowers her daughter was growing.

Williams later lost her father, meaning both of her parents died just months apart.

Tampa Bay 28

As Williams worked through that grief, the flowers growing in her backyard began to take on a new purpose.

She knew the varieties she planted would continue producing and said she would never be able to enjoy all of the flowers herself. At first, Williams planned to give the extras to friends and family. Then she decided to expand that circle.

“Instead of sharing them inside my circle, maybe I could share them outside and spread more joy with people, maybe those I don’t know, but who might need something to brighten their day,” Williams said.

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On Aug. 16, Williams said she posted on Facebook that six jars of flowers were sitting outside her home and available on a first-come, first-served basis.

All six were taken.

“My reaction was shock at first, but happiness, because that was 6 jars of flowers that made someone happy, and that's the whole purpose of it,” Williams said.

Those first six bouquets eventually grew into “Our Giving Garden,” a Facebook community that now has about 1,500 followers.

Williams said there is no set number of bouquets she puts outside. Instead, it depends on what her garden produces. After returning from one vacation, Williams said she had enough flowers to put 43 jars on her porch.

“What started as me putting 6 jars on my porch to share with people turned into this massive following of people sharing positivity with each other, with me, out into the world, putting flower jars on their neighbor’s porch to a teacher, or first responder,” Williams said. “It just grew into this big mission of kindness that I never could have imagined.”

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Williams grows flowers including zinnias, cosmos and globe amaranth, and she sometimes uses basil as filler in the bouquets. She places the flowers into jars and includes a note explaining the project.

The community has also gotten involved. Williams said people have donated jars, flower food, gardening tools and seeds to help her continue giving the bouquets away.

Williams initially set a goal of giving away 100 jars of flowers by the first anniversary of her mother's death. She told Tampa Bay 28 she reached that goal in September.

Her next goal is to give 100 jars by the anniversary of her father's death. But Williams said she now wants the mission to extend beyond her own garden, setting a community goal of gifting 1,000 jars of flowers between Oct. 1 of this year and Sept. 30 of next year.

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Williams said participating does not require someone to have a garden. Flowers can be store-bought and placed in a Mason jar or even a cleaned-out pasta sauce jar. And for those who cannot give flowers, she said there are simpler ways to participate.

“You don’t have to have a garden or spend money to spread kindness and to make somebody’s day,” Williams said.

For Williams, the project continues to bring her back to the two people who helped inspire it.

“They were two people who had a daughter who loved them so much that when she lost them, she needed somewhere for that love to go,” Williams said. “And she found a way to do that by putting flowers in jars and sending them out into a hurting world that needs something like that more than anything right now.”

Williams said she believes her parents would be proud of what their daughter’s backyard garden has grown into.

“I think my parents would be proud of this,” Williams said. “They would be proud of me and they would be proud of themselves where they should be because I am.”