Good Friday to you all. I hope your week is going well and you are ready for Mother’s Day weekend!  I know it’s going to be different this year, we may not be able to get our usual hugs and kisses that all Moms like to receive, but I hope we can all still make it a special day for Mom.  One thing I know that makes all Moms happy is a beautiful bouquet of flowers.  That’s why today’s post is all about flowers – in honor of Moms everywhere 💐🌹🌺🌸🌼🌿.Today I would like to share these pictures of an array of wonderful garden bouquets that were created by friends and family as part of my Mother’s Day Flower Exchange last weekend.  What a beautiful array of arrangements these ladies created!

First a little background on our Mother’s Day Flower Exchange.

Friends and family know I am an avid gardener and that I love, love, love flower! This year they have been sending me tons of photos of their garden in bloom and sharing their gardening stories. All these messages gave me an idea for a floral exchange to celebrate Mother’s Day,  kind of like a cookie exchange but with flowers. This is what I proposed.

“I’ve been receiving so many texts with photos of flowers blooming in springtime gardens and that gave me an idea. You’ve heard of cookie exchange, how about a flower exchange? I love Mother’s Day and since I can’t see you in person this year to celebrate, I thought we could do a flower exchange instead?

I’ll drop off a garden bouquet from my garden, and you gift me one from your garden.  I’ll leave my flowers outside, and you can do the same.  I’ll text you when I’m 5 minutes away so you know when I’m coming.  What do you say?  Want to do a flower exchange for Mother’s Day?   Hope to see you 6 ft apart with flowers 💕💐!”

It’s no surprise that everyone was enthusiastically on board with responses like…

“Great idea! Up for it. “

“Sure lets do the flower exchange. I am up for it too, hopefully I will have more flowers in my front yard! Otherwise it will be mostly leaves with some flowers 😊”

“That sounds wonderful! “

“Yes, flower exchange sounds fun. I am in.  Lots of seedlings are growing. Will take out a few by next Sunday for you. Looking forward 👍🏻🌷🙏”

“Wow what a great idea!”

“Hi Kalpana, I sure like your idea of exchanging flower bouquet with each other from 6ft apart. But as you know , I’m not very creative but willing to do it. Thanks for coming up with this unique idea.💕🌹💐!!”

“That’s a lovely idea Kalpana! “

A successful Mother’s Day Flower Exchange!

I am happy to report that this Flower Exchange was a huge success!!  Basically I mapped out my weekend and stopped by my friends homes in one neighborhood on Saturday and stopped by my other friends and families homes on Sunday.  To be honest it was a lot of work driving around town delivering flowers, even though I was getting some back in return.  It took a lot of planning, boxes in the car with padding to hold the vases with flowers and water in place, and making sure I drove slowly so they didn’t tilt and fall and mess up the arrangements.  But it was all worth it!!  Friends were so thrilled to see a familiar face when I stopped by!  What was meant to be a quick drop off and pick up, ended up being a fun conversation from 6-ft apart 😚😗😀 💐😘😍!

On Monday this week I posted pictures of the arrangements I made for the Flower Exchange.

Flower Exchange with Friends

Today I would like to share with you the arrangements I received in return 💐!!  Each arrangement is unique as the gardens and the ladies who created them. The arrangements I received ranged from sophisticated to simple, artistic to avant garde, charming to opulent.  Here is a look at floral bouquets as beautiful as the dear friends who gifted them.

My friend Rose’s courtyard garden

Rose’s charming garden bouquet

Friend Basanthi’s garden

Basanthi’s cottage inspired garden bouquet

My friend Lakshmi’s artistic and eclectic grand floral arrangement.

Friend Devi’s garden

Devi’s miniature rose and succulent flower garden bouquet

My friend Swati’s hillside garden

Swati’s hillside inspired garden bouquet

My friend Padmini’s garden

Padmini’s delightful rose and perennial bouquet

Cousin Meera’s garden

Meera’s dazzling rose garden arrangement

Cousin Uma’s elegant calla lily garden bouquet

Friend Veena’s garden

Veena’s colorful rose garden bouquet.  An assortment of a rainbow-colored roses 🌹💐.

My friend Radhika’s garden

Radhika’s elegant and exquisite charming rose bouquet

My friend Shalini’s garden

Shalini’s sophisticated red and white rose arrangement

Cousin Gowri’s garden

From cousin Gowri

A heartfelt thank you to all my friends and family who participated in our inaugural Mother’s Day Flower Exchange 🙏🏻😘💕❤️💐!!!   Maybe this can become our new annual event 🤔??   Yes, I am swimming in flowers but that’s what a flower lover like me loves!!  With everything going on lately, all these flower arrangements just lifted away my worries 💐🌹😍.

Have a good weekend everyone!
Be safe and take care!